Chapter 72
Chapter 72
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: The Girl Ultimately Despairs, Great Library Investigation Operation (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
6.
“Librarian!”
Cha Seung-hyeon shouted urgently.
“Intercept it!”
Shin Tae-yeop barked out quickly.
As Chakram tore through in all directions, the librarians wailed in agony.
Of course, they hadn’t taken down every last one.
Many had slunk into the dim twilight where the light couldn’t reach…
…and then leaped out from somewhere to pounce on Do Ye-jin.
The librarian’s lower body resembled maggots.
Its legs were disgustingly intertwined like maggots.
Maybe it should be called a human maggot. The moment the librarian gaped its maw.
──Puhwaaaaak!
A spear blade pierced through its throat and burst out. The librarian dangled limply from the spear tip before being slammed to the floor.
“Get your head in the game!”
It was Yoon Geon-woo.
“You feel it? The catalyst’s here?”
Shin Tae-yeop, who was deploying flames for illumination all around. His urgent question.
“Y-Yeah… I think so!”
The moment Do Ye-jin answered.
“Byeong-gyu hyung!”
“……?!”
“Go the way she’s pointing. Escort her. The three of us will hold them off here. The others will come when they hear the noise.”
Hong Byeong-gyu slapped Do Ye-jin on the back.
This was the central reading room. They needed to head to the left reading room.
“Let’s go. This uncle’ll protect you!”
Hong Byeong-gyu set off down a path clear of librarians, and Do Ye-jin hurried after him.
- Librarians pinpoint enemies by sound.
Do Ye-jin suddenly recalled Shin Tae-yeop explaining the librarians’ traits.
- Heartbeats, breathing, everything’s included. But librarians swarm toward the loudest noises.
That was the key.
Just get out of here first.
Librarians leaping from reading seats on both sides.
It looked like they’d pounce on the pair, but a half-beat faster, the chakram flew in and sliced off their necks.
“This way!”
Hong Byeong-gyu raced to the right end of the reading room and flung open the double doors leading to the left reading room.
Do Ye-jin ran for dear life.
Just then, one librarian grabbed her ankle, but she twisted her body and stomped its head flat.
That sensation.
That horrific sensation.
No time to be overwhelmed by it.
Do Ye-jin hurled herself through the double doors, and the moment she was inside, Hong Byeong-gyu slammed them shut.
A breathless silence where only panting could be heard.
Haa.
Haa.
Haa.
While Do Ye-jin gasped for breath, Hong Byeong-gyu jammed his axe like a latch to lock the double doors.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
The sound of a few slamming their heads against the door. It stopped after about five seconds.
‘Finally, a chance to breathe.’
Hong Byeong-gyu muttered softly as he helped Do Ye-jin to her feet.
‘You okay? Can you stand?’
‘……Yeah.’
The central reading room was quiet.
Shrieks and metallic clashes kept erupting beyond the double doors, though.
‘Safer now, right?’
Hong Byeong-gyu glanced around, then rubbed his chin.
‘Something smells weird… Is it the catalyst?’
‘Dunno about that… but I feel it. Close… really close.’
The two crossed the left reading room.
It was brighter than the central one with so many broken windows, making it suitable for cautious movement.
That didn’t make it any less dangerous.
Every now and then, a rustling came from somewhere on the mezzanine walkway.
Librarians…
They froze each time, holding even their breath.
Please… please…
Fortunately, no attacks came.
How many times did they repeat it?
Finally, the girl found the catalyst in the middle of the central reading room.
Suddenly, the despair inside her began pounding wildly.
A reading desk arranged like an altar.
Heterogeneous, ominous objects were scattered about, and one in particular looked the most foreboding.
‘No way… is this it?’
Hong Byeong-gyu shrugged as if to say he didn’t know.
‘I wouldn’t know. Try touching it. Might get a tooltip.’
She hesitated, then reached out.
Among all those objects, only when her hand passed ‘that one’ did her blood freeze and sweat pour from her body.
A human skull.
‘Feels like it.’
Do Ye-jin turned to look at Hong Byeong-gyu. He nodded.
‘Let’s go, little sis.’
Calm down.
The moment she picked up the skull.
The reading room vanished before her eyes, replaced by a bizarre scene. Like augmented reality.
「It’s time.」
A blood-soaked horizon.
A man and woman standing side by side.
The man was familiar, the woman a stranger.
「Let’s go. To end all this.」
The man in a suit…
Her teeth ground together. No doubt about it. The guy from the first day of the apocalypse.
The one called the master of nightmares.
「Can we do it?」
The gray-haired woman asked.
「My role is over now. I’ve done everything I could. Success or failure rests entirely on you.」
「On me… no.」
It was right then.
The woman somehow looked straight this way—at Do Ye-jin.
「You should say, on us.」
And the suited man turned this way too, giving a wry smile.
「Ah… right. Yeah.」
The vision that had started abruptly ended just as abruptly.
Do Ye-jin startled and pulled her hand from the skull.
Then… something incomprehensible happened. The skull crumbled into light dust.
[??? Acquired: Will of Ruin]
- Unique skill, 《Subordinate Transformation》 conditionally unlocked.
An info window appeared instead. Do Ye-jin stared at it blankly for a moment.
Will of Ruin…?
Her fists clenched involuntarily, lips biting hard. Don’t make me laugh… Who’d let themselves be used like that?
I’ll make you regret choosing me, crying.
But why…?
Why did those two wear such sad smiles?
‘Success?’
Hong Byeong-gyu asked with a puzzled look.
‘Uh… it’s kinda complicated… but yeah. Something about conditional unlock.’
‘Sounds really tricky. I’m no good with head stuff. Easier to report to the boss.’
Hong Byeong-gyu turned toward the double doors with a grin.
‘Or we could grab a bite after returning and ask then.’
Food…
The warm ring of the word brought a natural smile.
‘Meat?’
‘You clueless kid. Raw fish is the rule on mission success days.’
‘Eww, hate fish. Meat’s better.’
Relieved at the mission’s success, on the way out… they encountered ‘something.’
It looked like a tumor.
Human-sized, with a sinister stench.
Repulsive capillaries pulsing on its surface.
‘……Never seen a live tumor like this before?’
‘More?’
‘Plenty of burst ones. All over the Great Library.’
Hong Byeong-gyu stared at the tumor, then suddenly swung his axe, slashing its surface.
‘In this world.’
He muttered blankly.
‘This damn world.’
Do Ye-jin’s mind snapped too.
It was a person.
What was inside the tumor… had been a person.
Eyeballs falling from sockets.
Legs merging like maggots… just like a librarian.
‘This…’
It didn’t end there.
‘……Isn’t that an <Association> uniform?’
‘Yeah. And I’ve seen that face a few times passing by…’
Then the thing—not a person, not a hunter… a librarian—opened its mouth.
“Cold… so cold… save me……”
It began to sob faintly.
“Too cold… please… save me……”
But even that mutter felt deafening in the silence enveloping the reading room.
‘Let’s go. We have to.’
Hong Byeong-gyu roughly grabbed Do Ye-jin’s shoulder, yanking her from her stunned shock.
‘Hurry.’
What was before her eyes was the truth.
The chilling truth of this apocalypse that all nightmare hunters had guessed at—and denied.
Which meant… the true nature of the Heteromorphs was…
“Cold. Too cold.”
The librarian began crying out.
Rustling came from all around.
Librarians swarming toward the sound.
‘Run. Better to run. We gotta get outta here first.’
A throbbing headache.
Yeah… get out first. For now… just for now…
Despair arrived right then. Despair’s first form was a grotesque voice.
Hee, heehee, heehee, heeheeheeheeheeheehee.
Like hundreds laughing… or crying…
At the same time, yellowish mist rose from the reading room floor.
A chill crawled up her nape.
‘Run. Run.’
Hong Byeong-gyu had heard it too this time. Do Ye-jin bolted mindlessly.
“Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee.”
“Aheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee.”
Even as they headed for the central reading room, the horror continued. Librarians hidden in the gloom began cackling maniacally.
‘This is insane.’
The inexplicable had only just begun.
The floor behind them crumbled into sand and poured downward.
What.
What the hell… her mind went blank.
The floor turning to sand accelerated… and drew closer.
“Run! Shit, if it catches you, you’re dead!”
Hong Byeong-gyu reached the double doors first. He retrieved the axe latch and pulled the door…
…but it wouldn’t open.
Her heart plummeted instantly.
Hong Byeong-gyu was a true veteran.
Even in this madness, he judged in a flash.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Pummeling the door with his fists.
“It’s coming. Close. The librarians too……!”
The sand closed in faster than the door could dent.
Almost simultaneous.
The floor at their feet crumbling like a beach—and the double doors exploding off with a roar.
Insane sand.
It buried their ankles in an instant, impossible to pull free by force.
Getting swept in the collapse was only a matter of time.
“Go!”
In that instant.
Hong Byeong-gyu grabbed Do Ye-jin’s nape and hurled her toward the central reading room.
“Uncle?”
Time seemed to slow.
If this kept up… Hong Byeong-gyu would die. What to do? What could she do? As her mind went white.
There was a way.
The moment her body launched, Do Ye-jin seized Hong Byeong-gyu’s left arm.
“Together!”
Yeah. With my strength.
Maybe I can pull this uncle out of this inexplicable disaster too.
She could be optimistic for that one moment.
Despair revealed itself in the very next.
「UHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
Behind Hong Byeong-gyu’s back.
From the sand-turned floor, earth surged up like a tsunami.
Zuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzu.
An ear-splitting rumble like eardrums bursting.
Amid the sand and quake blinding sight and sound… the nightmare descended.
Ant… ghost ant?
The first impression that flashed was a ghost ant.
But… its repulsive body wasn’t formed of insect chitin.
People…
Countless people.
If you mashed living people together like clay to mimic a ghost ant, would it feel like that?
“Mommy… Mommy… are you there?”
“It hurts… doctor… call a doctor……”
Those with only faces protruding wept.
Those with only limbs flailing weakly.
“No.”
A cracked voice leaked from Do Ye-jin’s throat.
“Don’t. Please……”
“Byeong-gyu hyung! Dodge!”
Cha Seung-hyeon shouted urgently from behind.
The nightmare gaped its grotesque jaws wide.
“Behind! It’s behind! Get downnnn!”
The moment Hong Byeong-gyu whipped his head back. The nightmare snapped its jaws shut.
…………………………………
The jaws were enormous.
Enough to crush Hong Byeong-gyu’s upper body and head into a bloody pulp.
Hong Byeong-gyu’s lower body, now missing its upper half.
It wobbled slowly, then toppled onto the sand.
All of it.
All that despair.
Had happened during the short airtime as Do Ye-jin flew toward the central reading room.
Dead?
He’s dead?
No way. No goddamn way.
This is too… too… impossible. It can’t be.
Do Ye-jin tumbled across the floor thinking that. Her sword belt loosened, sending Cannon Axe flying far away.
Something heavy weighed in both hands. She lifted it carefully…
“No……”
…and dropped it blankly to the floor.
It was… an arm.
Hong Byeong-gyu’s arm she’d grabbed earlier. The arm that had been alive and smiling just moments ago.
“No.”
In that moment of despair, a line of scorch marks etched before her feet.
──Roooar!
A wall of flame erupted from it.
Then Shin Tae-yeop’s urgent voice from behind.
“Do Ye-jin! Over here!”