Chapter 45
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Poison Among Poisons (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Dan-woo, I've been thinking this for a while now. Where on earth did you pick up phrases like that?”
Over the past few days patrolling around Garak Market together, he'd grown somewhat used to Dan-woo's unique way of speaking.
Even so, whenever those odd turns of phrase popped out of nowhere like this, he couldn't help but wonder if that's what the kids were saying these days.
“Uncle. Isn't it amazing that this middle school kid survived all alone when everyone else got caught by the spiders?”
“Huh?”
“Study the past to understand the present! It's all because I followed the words of the ancient sages.”
“Sigh… Alright, fine. Anyway, have you thought about how to draw out the tiger?”
At Min-jun's question, Song Dan-woo moved to the window overlooking Jamsil Girls' High School.
“Only that school has no poison mist, right? That's because it's where the spiders are raising humans.”
“Raising?”
“Yeah, a human farm.”
What followed from Song Dan-woo was a tale about the Star Lord's third daughter, the gatekeeper at the Garak-dong Cathedral named ‘Sicarius,’ who had created a human camp using the poison mist.
“Why did Sicarius build a human camp like that?”
“She fattens up humans nicely over time and supplies them to her eldest sister, Regina. Then Regina uses those humans as her personal guards.”
“Ah!”
It was the moment the origin of the human puppets under Regina's command was revealed.
“But I saw those humans getting sent to Garak Market later on? Just my theory, but it seems like the whole thing is a process to select humans to offer to the Star Lord. Picking out guards to protect the Star Lord, and gathering sacrifices for the Star Lord to eat and grow.”
Min-jun clenched his teeth as he listened to Song Dan-woo.
“So, you want to attack that place?”
“More precisely, we're liberating the people locked inside. Then Sicarius and the spider swarm will come bursting out of the gate to catch them, and the spiders will scatter to grab the fleeing people…. That's when we strike! We take out Sicarius alone. If the people run, great. If not, that's fine too. They have to capture people alive to send sacrifices to Atlnak, so they'll definitely try to take them alive. Heh heh, Uncle. What do you think of my perfect plan?”
“Everything's great, all good…. But there's poison mist. As long as that's there, the people can't escape that place. How do you plan to get them out?”
“Hmm, I hadn't thought that far….”
Thwack!
Min-jun flicked Song Dan-woo's forehead as the boy trailed off and replied.
“You're acting like you have some grand plan when you haven't even figured out the most important part?”
“No! Honestly, isn't it impressive that a middle school first-year came up with this much?”
“It's commendable, sure. But Dan-woo, we can't move on a plan this half-baked. The moment we hesitate, we're dead, and so are the people inside.”
“….”
Truth be told, Dan-woo had nailed the big picture.
If they could just clarify how to evacuate the people, it would be a plan to safely rescue them and take down Sicarius with ease.
Min-jun nodded as he pondered.
A young boy had used his determination and imagination to lay out the solution. Then it was up to the adult to put the finishing touch.
“Hmm.”
After deep thought for a long while, Min-jun finally spoke.
In truth, this wasn't so much worry about the method as hesitation over carrying it out.
“Dan-woo, can I have back that poison bead I gave you last time?”
“Why?! You're not gonna give it and then take it back, are you…?”
“I'll use it for a bit and give it back.”
Song Dan-woo reluctantly handed over the purple bead, still slick with his saliva from having it in his mouth moments ago.
Min-jun, stroking the bracelet he'd received from Kim Hak-beom at the police hospital not long ago, took the bead and murmured softly.
“Alright, Dan-woo. Let's start the operation right now.”
* * *
A place that once would have been filled with the lively chatter of high school girls.
The classroom that should have brimmed with fresh youthful energy had vanished from this world.
Now, this place was merely….
“Cough… Cough!”
“Waaah! Mommy!”
“Honey! Pull yourself together! Don't close your eyes…. Sniff.”
A slaughterhouse of 'human pens' divided into sections and the humans being raised within them.
“President! I don't want to die! My mom's waiting at home! Take me instead-”
“You bastard, get out here now!”
“…Please, can't you go instead of me?!”
“….”
“Pleeease!”
It didn't matter what position they'd held in society.
The creatures dragged out a set number of people at fixed intervals, and those taken meant death.
“President! Presi… dent! Jeon Byung-chul!”
Slide- Bang!
I served you loyally! I did everything you told me! But…. Hey! Heeeey!
The voice of a subordinate he'd cherished echoed down the school hallway.
““….””
He'd been polite, quick on the uptake. The perfect guy to have as a boss's favorite.
But not a single soul in this place stepped forward in his place. Everyone valued their own life above all.
“Daddy, can we get out of here?”
“…Of course. Just a few more nights, and those spiders and their lackeys will all be gone.”
“Honey….”
“Daddy, really?”
Because there were many here who had something more precious than their own lives to protect.
Jeon Byung-chul, who had held a prominent position representing Garak Market, stroked his daughter's head and gave his wife a bitter smile.
This one smile would bring his family a moment of peace.
‘Sigh.’
Just a month ago, the world hadn't been like this. Back then, he was the new manager assigned to oversee Garak Market at the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, and the head of a family welcoming his wife and daughter to celebrate.
But the star that fell that day and the spiders crawling out of it had turned the world upside down.
Murderers with bloodshot eyes became the spiders' vanguard, and they themselves were trapped in the poison mist at Jamsil Girls' High School.
Slide-
The classroom door opened again.
“Hey! You, come out!”
A man with bloodshot red eyes pointed at him.
“….”
“Honey, sniff….”
“Daddy, don't go. Waaah!”
His wife and daughter clung to him, pleading not to go, but the creatures weren't the type to be swayed by such sentiment.
To protect his wife and daughter, he walked out on his own.
The brute who seized his arm dragged him before some spider. And then….
“You bastard? Stand straight?!”
A sudden spider thread shot at his eyes, throwing off his balance, but the creature bellowed as if it couldn't care less about his fluster.
Amid the confusion and panic, he was led blindly somewhere, eyes covered by the spider silk.
He'd always wondered. No, more accurately, feared.
No one ever returned after being dragged out from the classrooms where they were kept.
That's why everyone inside assumed they were dead.
“Hey, you fuck, stop dawdling and walk faster. Gotta get beat to move?!”
The smell of the air. The wind. The feel under his shoes.
Out of the school, into the outdoors, then back indoors.
Where had they taken him?
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, his face felt like it was sliced by a knife, and the silk blindfold unraveled, fluttering into the air.
Stinging pain came with the sensation of blood trickling down, but the sight before him shouted that it was nothing.
“Kreek!”
“Keeek!”
He was in the school auditorium, where spiders had gathered in a circle like students watching a brawl, clearing a central arena.
In the open space stood some twenty people, each gripping monkey wrenches, polearms, and the like, all trembling in terror.
And overseeing this scene was the massive spider.
The enormous spider with the sleek, voluptuous upper body of a woman and the lower body of a giant arachnid—Sicarius—looked down upon them and spoke.
“Hmm— the final contender has arrived? Come on in.”
As she purred in human tongue with a seductive voice, a spider behind shoved him into the arena.
Crash.
Tumbling into the 'ring,' he reflexively grabbed the first thing at hand in self-defense.
A kitchen knife.
‘Ah. These people are in the same boat as me.’
Clutching the weapon, he realized.
The eyes of those staring back, weapons in hand, were filled with fear.
Humans were creatures of imagination, and everyone here, himself included, glimpsed the future through that imagination.
Clap.
Sicarius, watching them, drew all eyes with applause and opened her mouth.
“Alright, begin!”
““….””
“What are you waiting for? Kill already?”
They couldn't just suddenly slaughter someone after being dragged here and handed a weapon.
Besides, knowing death awaited anyway, he had no desire to play along with their game.
“Oopsie, Mother did say humans need rewards to move?”
If it weren't for her words, feigning generosity, perhaps he would have.
“I'll grant one wish to the last human standing.”
““….””
“…Does that wish include leaving this place?”
Everyone was silent, so he stepped forward to ask.
“Letting you 'leave' this place? Piece of cake.”
“What about someone else instead of me?”
“Hmm… Sure. I'll allow that much.”
“How can we trust your word?”
“….”
As his words ended, Sicarius's expression chilled in an instant, and she spat out a glob of black liquid.
Sizzle—
“…?!”
“Gaaahhh—!”
The middle-aged man beside him, hit by the liquid, screamed in agony and flailed wildly.
In mere steps, his skin and bones melted away, ending as a puddle of blood.
“You just crossed the line. But bravado counts as courage, so I'll let it slide once.”
Right.
In this flipped world, power was law, and he had to believe whatever the bitch said, even if she claimed to have pounded mung bean paste with rice.
‘Fuck.’
Stab!
He sprang up and plunged the knife into the throat of the long-haired young man crouched and shaking before him.
‘This guy must have been someone's daughter too. Like our Su-yeon….’
Pulling out the knife, a fountain of blood sprayed toward the ceiling—the signal for slaughter in this place.
“Uwaaaah— Die!”
“Cough…. Please, Uncle, spare me.”
“No, please! Gahk….”
A student killed his grandmother, and he stabbed that student in the back.
The young man swinging the polearm sacrificed an arm to close in and thrust his knife home, and the trembling kid he snapped the neck of.
He killed and killed again. His vision went red after a monkey wrench blow, but this blood-soaked world made it irrelevant.
Even without blood in his eyes, he'd bear the red gaze of a murderer anyway.
Monster's whim or not, if it meant protecting his family, he had to see it through.
Slash—
After stabbing the last remaining man in his twenties several times, he staggered to steady himself.
The wooden auditorium floor had turned into a red pool.
The spiders encircling what had once been 'people,' including him, cheered in their own tongue.
He limped forward to Sicarius, yanking the kitchen knife from his thigh.