Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: A Nightmare Resurrected
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The figure in the photograph was a grotesque corpse.
I could say it was a corpse because no one could survive in such a state.
Melted skin.
Blisters and inflammation.
Hemorrhaging from the retina and around the mouth.
At a glance, the corpse looked like it had been exposed to a powerful acid.
But Kanghyeok had seen a corpse like this before.
To be precise, he’d seen a corpse similar to this one.
Too many of them…
The future that had been destroyed.
Corpses had littered the land in every direction.
The corpse boiling in the cauldron had looked similar to this.
Kanghyeok unconsciously covered his mouth, his eyes looking up at the sky, pleading for an answer.
*Have I found them?*
*Are these bastards really connected to the ones I've been looking for?*
*Am I on the right path?*
*Can my efforts truly change the world, change my future?*
Kanghyeok looked at the yellow-tinged full moon, but no answer came.
As if telling him to find the answer himself, just as he always had.
***
A high-end black van.
The dark-skinned man with a buzz cut behind the wheel spoke to the young man sitting behind the passenger seat.
“Lighten up.”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
A low growl.
He slowed down and turned his head to look at the young man’s face.
“It’s because of Iron Mask, isn’t it?”
“Don’t talk about my father, Walter.”
As if a memory he had tried hard to forget had been stirred up, the young man shook his head with a look of disgust.
The man called Walter chuckled deeply and returned his gaze to the road ahead.
“Just finish this job well. Then I’m sure Iron Mask will see you differently.”
“…Do you really think so?”
“Of course. Why else would he entrust such a big job to his son? It’s so you can build a track record and earn his recognition.”
The man sitting behind the passenger seat nodded slowly.
It was a sluggish movement, befitting his nickname, Lento.
However, not many people could call him by that nickname.
The only son of Iron Mask.
Though a son unrecognized by his father, he was the heir to the organization.
“My father once said he might pass the succession to someone else.”
“He was probably just saying that.”
“My father isn’t the type to just say things.”
Silence fell as if the conversation had been cut short, and Walter touched his lips with a look that said he’d made a mistake.
*How pitiful.*
In Walter’s eyes, and in the eyes of others in the organization, Lento was not the kind of person who could lead.
Iron Mask probably saw him the same way.
It wasn’t a physical problem.
No, physically speaking, it would be hard to find a more suitable candidate than Lento.
Harsh training that had continued since childhood.
He had even attended an elite mercenary training camp and been taught by instructors from special forces.
That’s why people who met Lento for the first time often mistook him for Iron Mask’s bodyguard.
But no amount of training or education could change his innate disposition.
In Walter’s view, Lento was not fit to lead the organization.
It would have been better if he’d been born into an ordinary family.
But born into such a family, with such an extraordinary father, he seemed to live a life of constant discomfort and anxiety, like a man wearing clothes that didn’t fit.
“Don’t think about anything else and just focus on the job. Then everything will surely change. Iron Mask will acknowledge you, and you’ll inherit the organization splendidly.”
Without answering, Lento closed his trembling eyelids.
At that, Walter’s eyes drooped as he clicked his tongue softly. He stopped the van and turned his entire upper body to look back.
“Let’s do this.”
“What?”
“Just stay in the van. I’ll take care of the rest.”
The casually tossed words received a pitiful response.
“Will that be okay?”
Walter nodded with a bitter smile.
It seemed there was another reason for Lento’s unease.
Psychological pressure or guilt.
The things they had been steadily preparing were coming to an end.
When this job is over, many people will die.
Thousands, at the very least.
At most, tens of thousands of people would die in the agony of their flesh melting away.
He didn’t know why they were doing this, but two things were certain.
It had been planned for a long time, and it was some kind of experiment.
If this is an experiment, what could the final objective be?
In any case, many people would die, but it wasn’t something Walter needed to worry about.
And it wasn’t a light matter that someone like Lento could handle.
“I’m counting on you.”
Walter wore a warm smile he would never show in front of other members of the organization.
“Leave it to me.”
Then he started driving again.
Towards the warehouse.
The same warehouse Gabriel had asked Kanghyeok to go to with her.
***
*Flop.*
Back in his room, Kanghyeok headed straight for the bed.
*Is it because of the photo?*
His thoughts were so tangled it felt like his head would split open; he couldn’t bear it without lying down.
If he had any sleeping pills, he would have shoved them into his mouth right away.
But it had been a long time since Kanghyeok had stopped taking sleeping pills.
The last time he took them, his laptop was stolen.
That was part of the reason, but more importantly, after he started holding a gun again, he found he could sleep peacefully without them.
*Shhk!*
Having drawn the curtains to block out even a single sliver of light, Kanghyeok pressed his forearm over his eyes and leaned his head deep into the pillow.
After spending more than half a day like this, he finally managed to fall asleep.
He plunged into sleep.
The realm of the unconscious, not reality.
What greeted him as he entered the deep, deep unconscious was the voice of a familiar girl.
“Hic… Ah, mister.”
Kanghyeok turned his head in the direction of the sound.
*Hsss, hsss.*
Beyond the gas mask that stuck to his face with every breath, he could see a collapsed girl.
Next to her was a pile of corpses.
Their skin, riddled with bullets, was horribly decayed.
Even the girl, who was still breathing.
“Cough, mis… ter…”
“No.”
Kanghyeok groaned and ran to the girl.
The bundle of food he was holding fell to the ground, and the canned goods and expired dried foods he had risked his life to get rolled across the floor.
Kanghyeok fell to his knees and pulled the girl into his arms.
The girl, bleeding from her mouth, was crying with eyes full of resentment and fear.
“*Sob, sob…*”
Kanghyeok looked down at the girl’s face, his own expression just as filled with fear.
Blood trickling from her mouth.
Her melting face.
Blistering skin and bloodshot eyes.
It wasn’t just the bullets lodged in her body that were driving the girl to her death.
That unidentified something that had destroyed the world.
It was leading the girl to her death faster than the bullets.
Kanghyeok rested the girl’s head against his chest.
“I… I don’t want to… die…”
Through the vinyl of his hazmat suit, he could feel the girl’s tears soaking into his chest.
And the groans and screams coming from the girl’s mouth, the boiling blood gushing forth, seeped into his heart.
A chill ran down his spine.
The girl and the surrounding corpses were the first survivors Kanghyeok had met in months in the ruined world.
They were warm.
They were people who had retained their humanity even though the world had ended.
“Aaaah.”
The girl’s death rattle, laced with the terror of death, erupted from just below his chin.
Kanghyeok hugged the girl’s head tighter and opened his mouth.
A hoarse voice came out.
The terror of the life he wanted to protect fading in his arms, and the loneliness of being alone again.
And the grudge and resentment towards the bastards who did this to them.
The rage, so intense it felt like it would crush his heart and burn his brain, was too fierce to even become a scream, leaking out of his mouth like a groan.
*KABOOM!*
A loud noise erupted beside him, and a wave of intense heat washed over him.
The girl who had been growing cold in his arms was gone.
The surrounding corpses and the food he couldn’t give them were also gone.
Only a burning bus remained beside him.
Kanghyeok stared blankly at the bodies burning inside the flame-engulfed bus.
The bastards who had hunted down and killed survivors, as if determined not to leave a single person on Earth.
They were now corpses, burning inside the bus.
Their muscles contorted in the flames, making them look as if they were dancing wildly.
Faced with the bizarre and surreal sight, Kanghyeok couldn’t react.
“Ah…”
Kanghyeok understood what this situation was.
It was the day he died.
He had taken care of all the bastards who were traveling by bus.
But he hadn’t been able to find out who they were.
He didn’t even know their affiliation or their purpose for making the world like this.
Kanghyeok lowered his gaze to the arm that had held the girl.
There was a small hole near his wrist, and his skin was boiling from that same something that had destroyed the world.
*KABOOM!*
His vision turning red wasn’t just because of the bus fire.
*BOOM! KABOOM!*
Beside the bus from which flames shot up, Kanghyeok shed tears of blood and collapsed to the ground.
Death was coming.
That absolute inevitability that no human can escape was descending upon him.
“Gasp!”
Kanghyeok’s eyes shot open.
He looked around, his face pale.
It was his room, illuminated only by a faint, elongated sliver of light coming through the curtains.
*A dream?*
Kanghyeok gasped for breath, placing one hand on his racing heart and the other on his face, which was slick with cold sweat.
The powerlessness he never wanted to experience again, the despair etched deep into his soul, had been resurrected through the dream.
“Dammit.”
This is why.
Because of this, Kanghyeok had been forced to take sleeping pills every night since the day he returned.
“Ugh!”
A sudden wave of nausea hit him, and Kanghyeok shot up, clamping a hand over his mouth.
Barely managing to suppress the vomit, Kanghyeok buried his face in his hands.
How am I supposed to take this?
Kanghyeok peeked at the mirror through his fingers.
His eyes had adjusted to the dark, and he could see his reflection.
His complexion, his gaze, his posture—none of it felt like his usual self.
He looked just like a soldier suffering from PTSD after a war.
I thought I was okay now.
I thought I would never have that dream again.
But because of the photo Gabriel showed me, I had that damn nightmare again.
*Haaaa…*
Kanghyeok let out a shaky breath, got out of bed, and opened the refrigerator.
He took out a water bottle and chugged it down, then poured the remaining half over the crown of his head.
Water pooled on the floor, soaking his feet, but he couldn’t care less.
The cold water completely chased away his drowsiness, and he looked back at the mirror.
The reflection in the mirror overlapped with his future self.
Especially because of his damn shaggy hair.
When was the last time I cut my hair?
Since he returned, he had only trimmed the ends, never cutting it short.
Kanghyeok frantically searched his room for scissors, and once he found them, he stood in front of the mirror and began chopping off his hair haphazardly.
*Snip! Snip!*
The long hair, just like it was right before he died in the future, was getting shorter.
After boldly cutting the hair that covered his nape, he stared at his reflection.
It’s okay. Now.
The hair that reminded him of the future was gone, and he could face the mirror.
*Clatter.*
Kanghyeok dropped the scissors.
Then he covered his face with his hands and curled his upper body forward.
*It’s okay.*
I can do something.
There’s hope.
I’ve found a trace of them, haven’t I?
I can stop it.
I can stop the apocalypse.
No one will die this time.
I’ll make sure of it.
Kanghyeok took his hands away from his face and exhaled a hot breath.
Then he looked in the mirror and saw a man with eyes so frighteningly wide open that even he was startled.
Kanghyeok’s lips trembled as he grabbed his jacket and pistol.
Then he kicked the door open and headed out of his room to meet Gabriel.
The sun was setting.