Chapter 72: The Melancholy of Nibiru, 2nd Class Dimension Management God-4
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 72: The Melancholy of Nibiru, 2nd Class Dimension Management God-4
Passing through the rift, the familiar streets of Korea unfolded before her.
Taking in the acrid scent of exhaust fumes and the rows of trees lining the road, Lee Mina finally felt she had escaped that hell. She soaked in the sights, the sensations against her skin, and the sounds she thought she would never experience again, losing herself in the moment.
For exactly ten seconds. Then, Lee Mina struck her own cheek with all her might.
Slap!
The sound echoed sharply, drawing strange looks from passersby.
"What gives you the right to rest?" she muttered quietly, as if scolding herself. "I don't deserve to rest."
Gazing at the small notification window floating before her, she began to walk. The window, which read '4th Class Dimension,' vanished with a flick of her hand.
Mina walked with purpose, as if she had a destination in mind, yet there were no visible clues to guide her. She simply followed her intuition—or more accurately, the direction in which her shadow stretched.
If anyone had been observing her closely, they would have noticed immediately that the shadow flickering beneath her feet was abnormal.
Mina walked the path as if she were on her familiar commute to work. She moved from the crowded downtown area into a quiet residential neighborhood. Weaving through the gaps between tightly packed buildings, she eventually reached a secluded, dilapidated structure.
Without hesitation, she headed into the building's basement.
Thud.
Her slender hand struck the iron door blocking her path. The dull metallic ring echoed up the stairs.
"Hmm... is this how I do it?"
Tilting her head, she closed her eyes and reached out. The shadow that had been wriggling at her feet spread out like a spiderweb, swallowing the shadowed corners of the building. Like a competitive eater forcing food down their throat, the shadow surged and heaved, steadily growing in size.
The shadow stopped expanding only when it had become four times larger than its master. Taking the shape of a giant hand, it emerged from Mina’s back and gripped the iron door firmly.
—Creeeeeak!
With the screech of twisting metal, the hinges snapped off. A screw that had been holding a hinge flew toward Mina’s eye, but the shadow snatched it out of the air before it could reach her.
Having broken the door, the shadow did not simply discard the thick slab of iron. Perhaps reflecting its master’s tidy nature, the shadow swallowed that as well.
Glancing into the interior, which looked like a hollow void of darkness, Mina stepped inside. A damp, foul stench stung her nose, making her instinctively knit her brows.
—Skitter.
As she fumbled to turn on the light of the semi-basement unit, dozens of cockroaches scurried toward the darkness. Seeing the sight, Mina hesitated to take another step for the first time.
"Can you get rid of the bugs too?"
When Mina spoke to the shadow clinging to her side, it sprouted needle-like spikes in every direction, resembling a hedgehog. The shadow extended into every nook and cranny; Mina assumed it was killing the roaches.
"Ah... don't absorb them."
Recalling how it had just swallowed the iron door, Mina gave a word of caution. As if sorrowful at having its meal interrupted, the shadow shivered a few times. Mina, of course, paid it no mind.
Her feet, which had been halted by the cockroaches, began to move again. The stench grew stronger with every step. She slowly looked around the house until she reached the room that seemed to be the source of the odor.
—Screeeak.
When she opened the door, she found the rotting corpses of a man and a woman. The man was tightly bound, and the woman was sitting at his feet.
The man’s face was unfamiliar. However, Mina could roughly guess who had been inside that body. It appeared the woman had killed the man with a knife before taking her own life.
"She didn't die peacefully."
Wouldn't someone slit their wrists if it were suicide?
Looking at the knife marks covering the woman's body as if she had been self-mutilating, Mina muttered to herself. She carefully searched the woman's person. She hoped for something that might serve as a clue to this tragedy, but she found nothing dramatic.
Only a wallet.
Looking at the ID she pulled from the wallet, Mina recited the dead woman's name.
"Lee... Hye-jeong?"
It was the name of the woman who had been the first to kill the man she loved.
"I wonder... which number was I to kill In-ho?"
The question she suddenly blurted out while surveying the carnage in the basement was a bit strange—especially as the words that signaled the start of Lee Mina’s long, long journey.