Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: Side Story: A Technician's Elegy
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1.
Yeah.
Looking back, Do Ye-jin's story really is nothing short of a miracle.
June 9, 2045.
Seven days after the Great Library survey operation.
“Record it. Duration: 13 seconds. Control failed, ability manifestation at 10%.”
Seo Hwa-yoon.
She pushed up her silver-framed glasses and beckoned to the <Workshop> researchers.
“Subordinates are spreading across the entire city.”
A white coat reminiscent of a researcher.
From that white leather, bluish blood sizzled and evaporated with a corrosive hiss.
“They're all overwhelmingly strong... In this state... even with the power of a Subordinate, you'd definitely die.”
Directly in front of Seo Hwa-yoon.
The corpse collapsed there was the nightmare of Gyonam-dong, Arishel'rab.
“I know... even without you saying it...”
From that brutally shattered skull.
Do Ye-jin crawled out, vomiting blood.
“I know... even without you telling me...”
Seo Hwa-yoon was momentarily speechless. Because she could see it all.
The despair carried in that voice.
The grief pooling in those eyes.
“Subordinates... are the hunters who survived to the end in this world... right?”
“............”
“Hong Byeong-gyu... Geon-woo oppa... Seung-hyeon... those three were real hunters... So incredibly strong they could smile no matter what...”
“Yeah. The First Hunter Squad was the next best after the Suppression Unit, after all.”
Tears began to well up in her eyes.
“And that's not all... To me, they were... like dads, like brothers...”
“Were they...?”
“People like that couldn't beat it... so how the hell... am I supposed to win?”
Seo Hwa-yoon didn't answer.
Her expression was hidden by the glare reflecting off her glasses.
“How am I supposed to do it...? Tell me... They all died because of me... People hundreds of times more needed than me...”
“............”
“You're right... unnie... Why me...? Why me, when I can't even use this power...?”
A brief silence.
“You know something?”
Seo Hwa-yoon walked over to the girl and knelt down on one knee in front of her.
“That all the idiots who risk their lives hunting nightmares are extreme pragmatists?”
Looking into Do Ye-jin's trembling eyes, Seo Hwa-yoon gave a small smile.
“For real. It's just a matter of degree. They're all pretty much the same.”
“...?”
“Baek-jun and Tae-yeop are the only outliers.”
“............”
“But even so... hmm, Ye-jin. You really don't get it? Why those people went to such lengths to save you back then?”
“............”
“I told you. They're pragmatists. They must've done the math. They could've just run away on their own and survived... right?”
Why... why did they do that?
She was right. If the First Hunter Squad had abandoned Do Ye-jin back then...
“I... don't know.”
A headache crashing in amid the sorrow.
Do Ye-jin lowered her head and opened her mouth in a sob.
“I don't know why they did it. Why me? I have this power? This goddamn power. Every time I use it, someone dies.”
“Ye-jin—”
“—It was always like that. Always...! You know what people call me now? Unnie, you know what they say after the Great Library?”
Seo Hwa-yoon let out a short groan.
It wasn't silence from ignorance. It was because she knew all too well.
“My very existence...”
Do Ye-jin wiped away her tears while crying.
“...is despair.”
Seo Hwa-yoon felt her fist clench involuntarily.
...Poor kid.
That's why she approached Do Ye-jin and tightly embraced her small frame.
“Ye-jin. What I'm saying is, when our world... when the world ended, it felt like all the answers were already set. The equation of power was just too simple.”
“............?”
“Have you ever seen a 1 struggling and turning into a 2? A 2 raging and becoming a 3?”
That was impossible.
Even Do Ye-jin, who wasn't great at studying, knew that much.
“But... in this equation, the one and only variable like x or y appeared... Know what that is?”
Seo Hwa-yoon grabbed Do Ye-jin's shoulders and locked eyes with her straight on.
“It's you, Ye-jin.”
“.........Me?”
“Get it now? Ye-jin, you get it now, right? Why your squadmates saved you and died back then.”
She kind of got it, but it was complicated.
That's why Do Ye-jin shook her head wildly.
“I... don't get it. I'm stupid. Really stupid. So tell me. Please tell me, unnie. Please.”
Seo Hwa-yoon looked at Do Ye-jin for a moment, then shook her own head.
“I've already told you everything. If you still can't understand...”
“............”
“Looks like... you have to realize the value of that given power yourself. And the mindset needed to use that value.”
Tap.
First, Seo Hwa-yoon touched Do Ye-jin's forehead with her left hand.
“Not just with your head.”
She slowly moved her hand down to her heart.
“But with your heart too.”
2.
“We can't just wait around vaguely for that. It's not pragmatic.”
Choi Uk said.
Sitting at his desk, reading an ancient tome of the stars.
“Now we need to introduce a different stimulus.”
Was it the backlighting?
Everything was dark, but only his glasses glinted, making Choi Uk look intimidating. Seo Hwa-yoon asked.
“A different stimulus?”
“Bones are amazing. The more they break, the more pseudobone forms, making them stronger.”
Saying that, Choi Uk closed the tome.
“The human mind is the same. Various traumas leave a kind of stimulus in the brain. That stimulus is like a scar—it doesn't disappear.”
Seo Hwa-yoon was different from ordinary people.
Not quite on Choi Uk's level, but she still had quite an exceptional brain.
“What you're saying now... is you're going to make Do Ye-jin numb to despair. Something like that?”
“I meant making her adapt, but you can interpret it that way.”
“Are you kidding right now?”
Bang. Seo Hwa-yoon slammed the desk and glared at Choi Uk.
“Do I look like an idiot? You're saying you're expecting one of Ye-jin's squadmates to die?”
Choi Uk was expressionless.
No, he didn't even lift his eyes from the book's text.
“Strategically speaking, even if the deaths of those three rookies equal five hundred deaths, it's still worth less than a single Subordinate weapon.”
Silence.
Fierce silence.
...Damn it.
Seo Hwa-yoon's teeth ground together.
She couldn't deny it. She absolutely couldn't deny it.
Because she knew it all too well.
In this world.
That his words were the straight truth.
“I won't ask you to agree.”
The extent of her rebellion was.
Slamming the desk sharply... then turning on her heel and storming out of the office.
“But I won't allow more resistance than that.”
To the departing Seo Hwa-yoon, Choi Uk advised.
“View the situation realistically. Like those math formulas you love so much.”
Silence again.
After about ten minutes, Choi Uk spoke.
“Will you condemn me as inhuman?”
“Inhuman.”
The one who answered was Im Yong-gon.
“Can any humans left even condemn like that?”
He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing down at the Paradise perpetually shrouded in darkness.
“Being able to condemn someone as inhuman means claiming yourself to be human.”
But.
In this kind of world.
The First Hunter Squad had proven what happens when you live as a human.
- We're alive.
That day, Kim Gye-sang.
And this time, Hong Byeong-gyu, Yoon Geon-woo, and Cha Seung-hyeon.
“There are no humans left in this world worth calling human. Not by old standards.”
Their deaths for the current Do Ye-jin were far too meaningless.
- Im Yong-gon, you bastard.
A voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
No...? Im Yong-gon groaned and staggered for a moment.
“You alright?”
Choi Uk turned his head in surprise. It was the first time he'd seen Im Yong-gon groan like that.
“...It's nothing.”
Im Yong-gon shook his head.
It was a path already lost and abandoned. Too late to turn back now, he thought.
“Really... it's nothing.”
3.
“If she says she wants to become a Subordinate, stop her no matter what.”
Seo Hwa-yoon said.
Shin Tae-yeop could only tilt his head groggily in his half-asleep state.
“Pardon?”
This is what she calls me out at dawn for?
“I mean Ye-jin. She definitely won't be able to control it. I told you, right? The key to Subordination is despair?”
“Yeah. You did.”
“After the Great Library incident, that despair seems even greater.”
Me too... I feel that way.
Shin Tae-yeop didn't voice it.
“Until that wound heals... it's best to assume she can't use the Subordinate's power.”
“Don't worry.”
Seo Hwa-yoon wore a worried expression.
Shin Tae-yeop flashed her a deliberately strong smile.
“I'll make sure that never happens, even if it kills me.”
At that moment, Seo Hwa-yoon couldn't help but flinch.
The boy's tone was eerie.
It sounded just like... he wanted to die already too.
4.
‘It definitely was like that...’
Seo Hwa-yoon smiled faintly.
The wretched past and her current self were worlds apart.
“We'll start the Jegi-dong reclamation battle in Dongdaemun-gu from this direction and secure the point here.”
Nightmare Zone Dongdaemun-gu, Yongsin-dong.
This westernmost point in Dongdaemun-gu was the <Association>'s first target in the second nightmare's territory and was now being used as an advance base.
“Engineer Officer Choi Uk, there was a barrier here. Looks like the Subordinates set it up.”
Command Engineer Officer Lee Seong-mi.
She expertly marked several spots on the map.
“A barrier, huh. The Second Subordinate used their head quite a bit.”
Do Su-jin skimmed the map briefly, then sighed.
“Probably trying to lure us in the direction they want.”
At Do Su-jin's judgment, Choi Uk turned to the Association President.
“What do you think, Kim Baek-jun?”
“Same judgment as Su-jin.”
Lead Hunter, Kim Baek-jun.
“So it's quite threatening.”
He seemed to sigh, then suddenly smiled as if by magic.
“But it won't be a big problem.”
He turned his head sideways, looking at one girl.
“Because we have Ye-jin.”
The girl Seo Hwa-yoon had been watching.
“Right, Ye-jin?”
The Subordinate weapon, Do Ye-jin.
In stark contrast to how she'd sniffled and cried that day.
“Yeah!”
The girl flashing a strong, reliable smile to everyone.
“Of course it's no big deal. Leave it all to me!”
Then Shin Tae-yeop whistled, and the other squad leaders cheered.
“Ye-jin~ We believe in you~!”
“You look seriously reliable.”
“Yeah. With Do Ye-jin, this operation will be a total breeze.”
The emblem embroidered on her shoulder and back was a golden cross. Do Ye-jin was now a member of the <Association>'s strongest force, the Suppression Unit, led by the Lead Hunter.
“Yeah, good luck to everyone!”
It wasn't in vain.
Nothing was in vain.
Seo Hwa-yoon pretended to clean her glasses and wiped away the tears welling up.
In this utterly meaningless world, for Do Ye-jin, no death had been in vain.
The Great Library survey operation.
Hong Byeong-gyu, Yoon Geon-woo, and Cha Seung-hyeon's deaths saving Do Ye-jin there.
The 'Exalted Ones' subjugation battle.
Im Yong-gon's death saving Do Ye-jin there.
The seed they fed, nurtured, and protected with their own blood.
Beneath that pitiful, desperate sacrifice.
The tiny seed had sprouted bit by bit, grown leaves... finally bloomed petals of hope... and now scattered the fragrance of hope across the world.
“The conclusion is clear.”
Choi Uk stabbed the map on the desk with his dagger.
Precisely at [Jegi Station].
The location identified as where Dongdaemun-gu's Second Subordinate was positioned.
“As of now, the <Association> enters operation standby mode.”
“.........!”
“Squad leaders, relay this to your subordinates.”
In that instant, the smiles vanished.
A solemn air unique to veteran hunters filled the room.
“16 hours from now, the <Association> will complete all operation preparations and commence the Jegi-dong reclamation operation in Dongdaemun-gu.”
Part 1: End of Childhood
Side Story Complete