Chapter 187
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: Under the Black Water (5)
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Thud, thud. Sturdy combat boots, cool emotions, clear footsteps. Winter walked in search of the remaining cameras. His slow steps soon became a cautious search. So as not to miss a single one. To try anything at all, at least Chadwick couldn't see it. Judging success or failure would come after that.
The unmanned experimental zone was full of dark corners with the lights off, flashing faintly each time gunfire echoed. In between rose the dissonant cries of the variants. Mixed in were nearby metallic sounds. Click. The empty chamber was exposed between the slide of the pistol locked back in recoil. Winter pressed the magazine catch and flicked his wrist sharply. The magazine flew out irritably by inertia. Before it even hit the ground, he reloaded and seamlessly transitioned into aiming, but—
“Think about it one more time.”
A hand grabbed his arm, disrupting his aim. The trigger, about to fire, stopped just short.
“I understand why you're doing this, Winter. I don't want to die either.”
The FBI agent saying this wore a pained expression. She'd followed quietly at a distance, her hesitation evident multiple times. Squeeze. Her gripping hand turned white.
“But you're not the only one at stake here. The citizens might have some leeway even if you disappear. But what about the non-citizens? This country will be as harsh as it was at the start of the plague for a while. Who will protect the refugees?”
The boy blinked silently, then corrected his aim with pure strength. Bang! As the shattered target scattered in fragments, Winter's left hand seized Joanna's collar. Overwhelming strength surpassing a beta ghoul dragged the agent helplessly closer. From a hand's breadth away, her eyes wide with surprise stared at Winter.
Silent time passed.
Gradually, Joanna's gaze lowered. With it, the strength left Winter's hand as well. The end of their wordless conversation. Joanna slowly exhaled the breath she'd held. Then she quietly turned her head. Winter straightened her disheveled clothes. It felt distant. How long had it been since he'd acted on emotion alone?
“Sorry for getting angry.”
“……”
“I didn't want to do this. Ann's a good person, and I know she's saying this with good intentions.”
“Winter……”
“But it can't be done. I told you, don't ask for the impossible……. Should I say it again? This is as far as I go. I'm Han Gyeowol, who couldn't kill Ann, and that's why I've helped others all this time. If I kill Ann with my own hands and leave, I won't have the confidence to help people like before. My heart won't be the same. I can't endure it. It's my limit. Do you understand?”
“I do.”
“Above all, being trapped here doesn't mean we're definitely going to die. The last evacuation was around midnight, right? We still have time. We can try something. As for the chance of failure, let's not think about it until it happens.”
“No choice, then.”
Joanna's following words were almost a monologue.
“Why wouldn't I feel the same? I just wanted to grasp a more certain possibility. So many lives are at stake. But……. Yeah, it can't be done…….”
With that, she gave a melancholy smile.
“Got it. We'll do it your way, Winter. Let's find another method together.”
“Thanks.”
The cameras began shattering again. The experimental zone's full broadcast, which had kept talking, fell silent at some point. Whether it had left on its own from exhaustion, or was just watching now.
Before long, it was the last one. One more magazine expended to reach here.
“Chadwick. Are you still there?”
The final closed-circuit camera responded to Winter's question. It whirred, turning to focus on them. The light came on. A sign that sounds here reached the other side.
[Changed your mind, Lieutenant?]
“No way. Just thought I'd say goodbye.”
[Goodbye?]
A voice tinged with disappointment and suspicion. Winter nodded lightly.
“Yeah. I really hope we meet again. Don't die in some lame place, and stay healthy until then.”
A sob echoed. The twisted patriot was genuinely grieving America's loss.
If he thought escape was possible, he wouldn't be so casual. Did that mean the zone's isolation was that secure? It had been a probe from the start, not expecting a real reply, and Winter pulled the trigger. Thud! Shattered circuit boards and glass scattered. Crunch, crunch. They crunched again under his boot as he stepped past.
Whew. After sighing, Winter said,
“You built this facility really well.”
The closed-circuit surveillance covered the entire zone. So at the end of the search, there were no spots Winter hadn't seen. Unlike in movies, the vents were too small for a person, and even those were barred with multiple layers of tight grates.
He'd checked just in case, but even inside the corpse disposal chute, there was a pressure door.
“What do we have? Got any explosives by chance?”
Joanna looked troubled at Winter's question.
“I have a bit of C4 I brought for door breaching, and some 50-grain detonating cord……. But neither has enough power to break thick alloy.”
Detonating cord was nylon cord coated with explosive. 50-grain meant the explosive content, and Joanna's was the weakest and lightest spec—barely 10 grams per meter—good only for cutting ordinary locks.
‘Even with Skill Acquisition, no hope…….’
Any skill had limited application of 「Talent Advantage」. The higher the grade, the fewer times Winter had practiced it before. Even 「Personal Firearms Proficiency」 had peaked at grade 17, mid-superhuman level.
Sure, superhuman+ realms existed, but normal effort couldn't reach them. This inefficiency was why Winter didn't casually enhance skills.
How long was the wordless silence?
Joanna, leaning against the wall in anxious thought, suddenly spoke up.
“We might be able to use the Trickster over there.”
“How?”
“The Trickster that fought you at Atascadero State Hospital wandered around opening locked doors.”
Come to think of it, that happened. Before the disaster, it doubled as a prison for mentally ill inmates; after, a CDC regional outpost. Winter recalled it vividly. It was where he'd first encountered the Trickster, so of course it was clear.
The cunning monster had freed confined variants and set traps using locked doors.
“It's still a hypothesis needing verification, but the Biodefense Strategy Lab suspects the Trickster can manipulate simple mechanical structures with electromagnetic fields. If that's true, couldn't it potentially open the locked pressure door?”
A hopeful speculation. The door sealing the experimental zone would be far heavier and more intricate than the hospital's iron locks. Could the wrecked Trickster manage it……?
“Worth a try.”
They had to attempt something. Winter responded positively.
“But first, better to handle the other variants. Even if the electric monster's a wreck, if it slips one and starts opening doors on us by mistake, we're in trouble.”
“Then I'll go right. We circle opposite directions and meet back at the Trickster?”
“Good. Let's hurry.”
Since they'd already swept the zone, prioritizing time over safety now made sense.
Methodically executing the confined variants wasn't hard. But considering ammo balance, Winter holstered his pistol midway and switched to the rifle.
‘Right after escaping, we might have to fight.’
Power might lack, but pistols beat rifles in reaction speed.
After finishing the grotesquely twisted test subjects, more hideous than normal variants, Winter reached the Trickster. Joanna appeared about a minute later.
The Trickster lay in the same state as before, boiling muffled cries from inside its gag. Grind, grind. Even with no teeth left, gnawing the gag produced sharp metallic sounds. Its blackened gums mashed, spilling corrupted blood.
“They welded the chains solid. Probably because of Ann's hypothesis. Detonating cord on the chain links would cut it, though.”
Even without electricity, better safe than sorry with special variants.
Joanna, scouting around, found a large body bag with silver lining.
“Too big for a human corpse. Probably for capturing the Trickster. An electromagnetic pulse from self-destruct during transport would've been bad.”
Winter suggested,
“Before freeing it, we should stuff sensitive stuff in there. Radios, night-vision goggles, electronic gear, electric detonators—dangerous explosives like that.”
Hard to predict now. How the freed Trickster would act. Maddened by experiments, it might overload itself immediately upon release.
Winter draped a white lab coat from a nearby chair over the cunning monster's face, tying sleeves and hem to blind it. The monster thrashed its head wildly, but futilely. Joanna, about to pull detonating cord from her pack, asked curiously.
“What're you doing, Winter?”
“It's smart. It'll suspect our actions. At least keep the detonating cord from sight. Then it might not realize we let it loose on purpose. Wishful thinking, but.”
Seeing the logic, Joanna nodded slowly.
Now they wrapped the cord and retreated. The two crouched behind a partition at a safe distance.
Joanna warned softly. Cover your ears. She herself covered her face with elbows.
“Detonating. Three, two, one.”
A intense vibration. The linear roar inside ripped through bones. Ears ringing from crown to teeth. The sole living monster's roar echoed after. Had the blast aftershock hurt it? Peeking out, Winter saw the severed chain dancing. Savage thrashing.
The flailing creature finally shed its blindfold. Briefly screaming from electrodes ripping from its shoulder blades, it flattened and scanned around. Emitting electromagnetic waves? Irregular static leaked from nearby speakers.
Now time to herd it to the exit.
Rat-tat-tat! Three-round burst deliberately wide sparked at the Trickster's feet.
Kyaaak!
The monster recoiled reflexively. Body too damaged, it spotted Winter and showed aggression but chose retreat. One arm dangled like a tail, ligaments severed, boneless. But not quite toward the exit.
Winter frowned, aiming at where its foot would land. Fired just before it touched deck. The monster flinched like burned.
Under sustained threat fire, the Trickster neared the destined spot.
Finally, it reached the pressure door. Five rounds left in the second magazine.
Kurrrgh! Splurt!
Blood sprayed each gurgling cry. The Trickster clung desperately to the thick alloy. Zap, zap. Small sparks on each grope.
“Please……. Come on, you monster bastard.”
Joanna's cheer was striking. She flinched at her own words. Who'd think she'd root for a variant.
Odd friction sounds came from inside the door too.
But suddenly, the variant froze.
It looked like it'd realized something. Hands off the door, it stared Winter's way. No more crouching. Instead, arms spread wide. Shoot if you dare.
‘Figured out I'm shooting wide on purpose?’
Blow its torso now? Could it survive that? Winter hesitated repeatedly, Trickster's abnormal state nagging him. Joanna tsked, set her rifle to full auto, and hosed it down. Kakakakakang! Reverberations sharpened the gunfire chain. She'd suspected the same. Three rounds hit its legs.
Mistake. Seeing hits too low for the distance, the weapon-familiar monster gained certainty. Proof: its gruesome grin, lips curling.
Grk, grk, grrrk.
Door, then the two, then door again…….
The laughing monster seized its own throat with its good hand.
“No!”
Joanna's scream-like cry echoed hollowly.
Trickster's fingers dug into filthy skin. Crunch, crunch, rip. Flesh tearing, vocal cords detaching. Trembling head lolled grotesquely back. Thud. It knelt. Arterial blood soaked to the ceiling. Bloodshot eyes fixed here. Winter's vision caught its yellow pupils dilating.
The Trickster died like that.
============================ Author's Note ============================
Q. Chun-gu-nim: @Loving it but it's getting more hopeless... Can Winter really be happy?
A. Yes. My own life's tough, so I want to write about a suffering person finding happiness. Haha.
Q. Carpice-nim: @If Ada sis won't do, a perfect 12/10 real man! How about Hell's Disaster Doomguy. Oh wait, there was that lightning-from-hands uncle or grandpa...
A. Doomguy's ripping and killing changed the novel's genre, causing issues. The unlimited power grandpa was the creative old man, Park Woo-cheol the elder.
Q. Crysis2-nim: @Winter has become Winterㅠ Top-tier, author-nim. Subscribed to Novelpia just for this / @Now you can go back. To those who didn't want to leave. Uw啊啊 So good!
A. Thank you so much for still enjoying amid many departures.
Q. Naelm-i-nim: @So fun.... No clue on the plot ahead.. How many episodes to end???
A. Hmm... At this rate, over 300 probably, but not sure exactly. Wanting to finish quick grows stronger.
Q. Curry Rice-nim: @Self-proclaimed counselor.. Winter already sniffed she's not real. Knows who? Well, with his surroundings, easy to guess lol.
A. Kid's sharp and sensitive to people... Winter's relationships are sparse from the start too.