Chapter 192
Chapter 192
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: Toward Seongsan, Nowon-gu Breakthrough Operation (3)
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4.
Ruuuuumble──────
Belching out ferocious black smoke.
The <Association>'s steam locomotive hurtled through the darkness of Line 6 at ultra-high speed.
───Screeeeeeeeech!
Bone-rattling vibrations shook her entire body.
And that wasn't all.
The acceleration crushed down on her from every direction. Could the ride possibly get any worse...?
Thud... Thud... Thud...
Every member of the First Hunting Squad had gone deathly pale.
"Why... it's not even an amusement park... did we have to buckle up like this...?"
Park Ji-won muttered in a voice that sounded half-dead, while Shyrak let out a feeble whimper from within Shin Tae-yeop's arms.
"But... Tae-yeop hyung...?"
"Don't talk to me... my stomach's churning..."
"It's important..."
"What is it...?"
"Paradise... doesn't have all its underground blocked off...? Like the subway and stuff..."
"What kind of obvious nonsense is that...?"
"No... when you said we were going to Sekgye Station earlier... I just got curious how exactly we're gonna get there..."
Hold on.
Shin Tae-yeop snapped to attention at Park Ji-won's concern.
Come to think of it... what the hell?
Luckily, the route to Nowon-gu's Sekgye Station only had one train in the way.
And the scouts had already smashed and cleared it.
But...
Unless they dug through Paradise's underground... And even if they did, there aren't any subway stations...?
"Shyrak... sorry, hang in there just a bit..."
Shin Tae-yeop stuffed Shyrak into his underwear.
True to being a frost lump.
It was chillingly cold for real... Shyrak barely poked its face out and barked.
"You guys wait here...! I gotta go see Hwa-yoon noona...!"
5.
"Cold..."
What snapped her back to awareness was the pathologically brutal chill.
A freezing cold that seemed to carve into her very bones.
Her whole body ached... hurt so much... but this pain was gradually becoming familiar.
But.
The hole punched through her heart.
The agony of losing her last remaining handful of family... that refused to grow familiar at all.
"You know how billions of humans survived the winter up till now?"
That voice.
The moment she heard the voice that had torn this massive hole in her heart.
"The law of the jungle. They survived by burning the weak and powerless like firewood."
Do Ye-jin felt a jolt of pain as she forced her eyelids open.
"Too hard to understand? Nah. Just look back at your daily life."
Hwang Ga-in...!
The instant she spotted his face through her hazy vision, she tried to scream it out without thinking.
Why won't my voice come out...?
All she could see instead was her white breath billowing out... Do Ye-jin was strung up by both arms on a gallows.
"The losers in elementary, middle, and high school. The outcasts in college. The workplace bullies... letting off steam on the powerless."
Lead Hunter, Hwang Ga-in.
She was dressed in an elegantly adorned black-and-white miko outfit, as if preparing for some ceremony.
"No real piece-of-shit would torment someone alone until they die. Know why?"
Huh...?
A chill ran down her spine in that instant.
The white parts of the miko outfit... were stained red with blood.
"'Cause when everyone's doing it together, the guilt vanishes! 'Everyone else is doing it, so why not?' That's how it works."
Hwang Ga-in looked up at Do Ye-jin with a sinister smile.
"You know the Creation Gods originally wanted to turn this world into a paradise of pure light and freedom?"
What...?
Hwang Ga-in's face... it wouldn't come into clear focus.
"So no one would suffer, and everyone would be happy."
That was when it started.
She began sensing a disorienting wrongness that shattered her five senses.
Vision rippling wildly.
A stench that made even breathing laborious.
An icy cold that couldn't possibly belong to this world.
What the hell... where am I, what's going on...?
"But those bastards fucked it up! Isn't that just naive fantasy thinking?!"
That's when she heard someone's silent groan.
Left, it was to the left.
The moment she turned that way.
What the hell is that...? Overwhelming terror made her whole body convulse.
"Humans, see. They're rotten to the core from birth. Put 'em together, and they'll always make sacrifices. Even when there's no need."
To Do Ye-jin's right, countless hunters were strung up on gallows by their arms.
Their throats were torn open right in the middle. Insane. They... they ripped out their vocal cords...?
"So what do you think humans need? Light? Freedom?"
But.
What made Do Ye-jin writhe in terror... wasn't those humans.
"No, it's cold."
It was some surreal entity.
Immense enough to shatter reason... grotesquely bizarre... a pure white worm...
"Exactly, the cold that descends equally on everyone."
How do you even describe that hair-raising thing?
A snail walking on four legs?
A white body layered with folds of fat... and a bizarre shell spiraling in a helix.
"Humans are beasts."
And.
A face that somehow looked human, even though it shouldn't.
"So they need to be controlled by someone. Worked like slaves, or they stay beasts."
Eye stalks protruding from that face.
Gleaming blue eyes oozing wetly from them...
"That shitty world is about to be reborn. Into the true new world."
It extended a tentacle-like protrusion from its back and seized a hunter.
"What do you call this? Evolution? Yeah, let's say evolution."
And then.
It shoved him straight into its gaping maw... into that mouth where outer space glistened stickily.
"Look over there, Ye-jin! Check out the snow pouring down in late summer."
Do Ye-jin frantically turned her eyes.
Clang clang clang, hands bound, couldn't cover her ears.
So she had to hear it all...
The soundless screams... the echoes of flesh melting and bones shattering...
"The world you were so attached to is already over."
And Hwang Ga-in's mad cackling glee.
"You're a sacrifice for the new era. Be honored."
In that instant.
The air... began to tremble as if shuddering.
What...?
Something with an even more transcendent presence than that monster had appeared.
"Miko."
"Yeah?"
"A minor issue has arisen."
She could tell from the voice.
Choi Sin-yul... Her teeth began to chatter from the terror deeply etched into her body.
"The Star Messenger informed us."
The one who had slain Seo Hwa-yoon with a single stroke.
The existence that had overwhelmed even herself, who had become a complete subordinate (though that memory was hazy).
"The <Association> has departed."
Huh...?
A bizarre shiver began to shake her heart at those words. Until Hwang Ga-in snorted derisively.
"What do those losers banding together even matter? Kim Baek-jun? That Lead Hunter's already crossed the Jordan."
What did she say...?
She had to doubt her ears.
Did I hear wrong? I must've misheard.
It had to be that.
Uncle Baek-jun couldn't possibly be dead... no way in hell... impossible.
"Best to hurry the ritual just in case?"
"Nah, even the fastest route from there to here takes a day. They just left now, right?"
"..."
"No need to worry at all. And by my side... you've got me."
Hwang Ga-in said it with a slightly bashful tone, then whipped around to face the monster.
"Now, just savor it nice and slow like before. We've got plenty of time."
6.
"Ugh...!"
Shin Tae-yeop flipped up his seatbelt.
"Shishi!"
"I'm fine. Didn't hit too hard."
He stood from his seat right away.
Staggering through the jolting train interior (water tank room, coal bunker, etc.), he crossed to the cab.
"Kiiiiiyaaaaaaaahhoooooooo!"
The cab was in full festival mode.
What the hell now... are we shooting some berserk chase movie?
"Freaking awesome!"
Naturally, the star of the show was Seo Hwa-yoon, head stuck out the cab window.
"Hwa-yoon noona!"
It took calling her five times before she pulled her head back in.
"What, Tae-yeop? Why're you here? Wanna try? Too bad, it's almost over."
Ruuuuumble...!
The inside was insanely loud, so they had to shout.
"No... that's not it. There's a major flaw in this plan!"
"What...? What flaw?"
"Paradise! Has no! Subway stations!"
A fierce silence fell in that instant.
No way... The moment he sensed crisis, Seo Hwa-yoon burst out laughing.
"Who doesn't know that?"
Shin Tae-yeop was briefly speechless at her reaction.
"No... then how...?"
"We've got it all prepared! We go through the sky!"
"The sky?"
"Yeah, the sky! Wanna see?"
The sky...?
It's a train, not a plane?
His head spun, thoughts wouldn't organize. Then.
"Ten seconds to collision."
Moon Ji-hyo, sitting in full lotus in one corner of the cab. She started the countdown.
"Eight seconds ahead."
A starlit eye floating above Moon Ji-hyo's head.
Her unique skill 《Thousand Ri Eye》.
He finally realized it differed somehow from [For the Princess]'s 《Thousand Ri Eye》.
"6, 5, 4..."
Around then, Seo Hwa-yoon started yelling into the intercom.
"Announcement to all passengers. Showtime coming up soon, so please grip your seatbelts tight."
"3, 2..."
As the countdown neared its end, his heart pounded wildly.
What?
What the hell are they doing?
"1────"
That was it.
A deafening roar erupted from below...
"────Leeeet's gooooooo!"
...and in a flash, the steam locomotive shot upward like climbing a steep incline.
"W-What... how is this even possible?!"
To Shin Tae-yeop's question.
Seo Hwa-yoon whooped excitedly before answering.
"Slanted the strata upward. Like making a ramp!"
"This too, an application of 《Shape Memory》?!"
"Huh?!"
"Is it an application of your unique skill?!"
"No! I did it, but it's a different skill! 《Form Quality Alteration》!"
A new skill?
No clue what it was, but the effect was massive.
Kwarrrrrrrrrumble───!
Debris from the collapse.
Rocks... pebbles... earth...
They tangled into a ferocious tsunami crashing down on the train.
"Uwaaaak! This is insane! We'll get buried alive!"
"Shishishishishishi!"
"We won't die! Don't worry!"
"The cars will detach too!"
"They won't! I reinforced the hell out of 'em for this!"
Seo Hwa-yoon grinned proudly at the sight.
"And Ji-yeon and Seong-mi are timing it perfectly to collapse the tunnel above!"
He'd heard from Park Ji-won.
Park Ji-yeon's unique skill was 《Iron Star Spike》.
- Extremely limited uses, but insane power. Blows through shelter bulkheads.
Classic one-shot-kill type.
If Park Ji-yeon had fought on the front lines, it'd have helped big time against the subordinates.
"And Seong-mi noona's guarding with 《Lotus Cloud》 during the breach?!"
He didn't hear the answer.
Dizzying acceleration slammed into his skull like a whirlwind.
"Noona, you're out of your mind!"
"What?!"
"You're out of your mind! This plan! No sane person would───!"
He couldn't even finish.
The next instant.
An ear-shattering boom exploded from ahead.
──Kwaaaaaaaaaaang!
With a pale flash.
A blizzard surged into the cab, roaring savagely.
"Kiyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikkkkkkk!"
"Kyahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
After entrusting himself to the seatbelt.
It felt like ages before he regained his senses and opened his eyes. Maybe three seconds at most.
What... the hell...?
When he finally did.
The pressure difference threatened to rupture his eardrums, and outside the cab window stretched a vast white expanse.
A true winter wonderland.
Hold on.
Does that mean.
We're above Nowon-gu right now...?
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Seo Hwa-yoon screamed into the intercom, and somehow cheers like thunder erupted from the cars.
"Announcement to all passengers."
Shin Tae-yeop couldn't even muster a hollow laugh.
"Nowon-gu station. Nowon-gu. This is the terminus."
This, this is nuts...
Going to the sky meant this...?
"Please return to your seats and secure your seatbelts."
He had no idea the altitude.
Nowon-gu's southern walls and gates encircling Paradise were visible at a glance.
"Station staff refueling. Hunters in the seats."
Ah, damn it.
He didn't know the details.
But the key thing he needed to grasp right now was this.
"Oh, right."
The <Association>'s entire force was now in enemy territory.
In under thirty minutes.
With every troop intact.
"The doors for alighting... uh, huh?"
Seo Hwa-yoon suddenly looked up from the intercom.
"They're, like."
She scratched the back of her head with an awkward smile.
"Guess we should think about how to get down now."