Clearing the Game at the End of the World - Chapter 179: Lead and Silver Coins (33)

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Pain. It has always been with me since I began life in the wasteland.

The truth is, everyone is like that.

Almost everyone has at least one wound pierced by a crude bullet.

A cut from rummaging through sharp scrap metal heaps while being watchful around, and pondering for days whether to cut off or leave as is the finger that festers without antibiotics.

Running through all kinds of building debris, one accumulates scrapes and bruises all over, and in winter, touching cold frozen metal can make the skin stick and tear off.

Above all, the silence that greets me when I drag my injured and tired body home. The reality that no one can take care of me.

They say when the pain worsens, the brain produces all sorts of substances. Sitting on an old sofa, dizzy from inflammation, medicine, and pain, I often saw all sorts of strange hallucinations.

So, that’s why I am feeling so dizzy now. The strange things I keep seeing, the numbness in my limbs, it’s all just because of the severe pain.

…Someone might call this a dying feeling.

“Is what I am seeing right now…. correct….?”

[It’s just an old wooden fence. Just move on. You’re doing fine.]

Zzziiikk— Krrrkkkk, Zzziiikk—

“Hyde…. What is this? This huge membrane-like thing…. A mutation…. Should I fight….”

[It’s just an old tent. It’s fine. You’re almost there.]

Crack!

“So, what about this….”

[No, that’s not it. This is Happy Blind residence. Why would you see the familiar intersection of shops in District 47 here?]

“Ah. Aahhh….”

Krrrkkkk. Krrrkkk.

Koong. Koong.

If only these were utterly nonsensical hallucinations. With each step I take, perspectives change frequently, and the grassy plains before my eyes turn into a city, ruins, a primitive residence soaked in blood. Houses built of dirt and stone. The market made of animal hides displays items carved from bone and wood in disarray. Everywhere, large eye-shaped patterns are visible. Yes, what I am seeing is all an illusion. There can’t be such a place in this world.

“Grrrrk, Hyde…. where am I going….”

[Wherever you want to. It’s okay. No matter what happens, we can hide each other from each other. I am reading you well. I…. have decided to respect your choice.]

It’s suffocating. A rasping sound is in my throat. Did I hurt my throat? Was my throat always this thick?

My body feels heavy. Something is wrong with my vision. I can’t even tell if I am walking, running, or crawling.

One thing is certain, I am gradually moving towards the center of strange sounds and lights.

I passed out several times on the way, and it seems I talked with Hyde for a long time before regaining consciousness. Now, I can’t remember anything. Only an old memory moves my body.

“Grrrrk…. I…. want to live….”

I will live. Whatever it takes. Stealing, robbing, killing, even if it’s something unspeakable and horrifying.

Before long, a clear light reflects from the altar that has approached before my eyes. It is death. I know it without being told, without learning. The cry of its birth has sent many screaming, and soon, it will lead me down the same path as them.

It’s strange. That object is far from my goals. How could I be walking towards it so arduously, as if I have been longing for it all my life?

[….Keep going. Just a few more steps…. it will be done.]

‘Yes. I must go. If no one else can….’

Koong.

Krrrrrrk.

A dark, solid claw dug its nails into the altar carved from stone.

Along with a strange melody, the primitive altar emitted light, and a large, dark creature climbed upon it.

Among those who survived in this battlefield, whether delusional or sane, none could perceive what they saw as reality.

It was all too surreal—an ill fit for the harsh reality of the wasteland, conversing with sand and oil, gunpowder and blood, lead and silver.

****

Li Xue was in a remarkably calm state.

She had completed an unprecedented killing device, and during its operation, a colleague who had been with her for a long time died horribly, resulting in the instantaneous explosion of hundreds of people.

All of these were events she had experienced, and regardless of the success or failure of the task, her death was already scheduled.

That must have been why. Unlike her wishes, when she noticed an uninvited guest approaching ‘the box,’ she was able to welcome it willingly, without panic.

“I can’t believe it. Really… to come all this way.”

She thought it a terrible sight. As GG’s research head, as a researcher of Dome, as the ‘Eye’ of Happy Blind, she had seen more mutations than anyone—from the primal variants to the ‘Adapters’ of the Artists Union. Yet, the sight before her was so appalling, it made one wonder what kind of person could transform into such a figure.

“Professor Park… or Hyde? Or is it… ‘professor’?”

“…..”

As she spoke, the creature, which had been blankly staring at the box, slowly turned its face towards her.

Apart from its size, it maintained a precariously human form. A muscular body standing on the edge of flexibility and solidity.

Suddenly, it struck her why his simple form among the Type 3 variants felt so disagreeable.

That dark color. A shade mixed with other colors, too complex to simply call black.

‘What a stench of blood… Even in this sea of blood, the smell is overwhelmingly foul.’

She recognized it—the color of hardened scabs she had seen long ago in the laboratories of District 38. Where dead blood had dried, flowed anew, and over it, more blood accumulated repeatedly to create a deep, dark maroon shade.

“…..”

The creature, which had no facial features other than its eyes, turned its head back towards the box.

As someone who had researched mutations for a long time, she was particularly struck by his form.

‘The appearance of a mutation follows its inner memories. It’s rare for a mutation to have no mouth. Usually, the dead want to express their pain to others. Are these memories he doesn’t want to share? Blood represents so much, it’s hard to guess, but if it’s about blood and shame, then it’s somewhat understandable. He must have killed someone he shouldn’t have. A common reason gives birth to an uncommon entity.’

Li Xue had to admit that she was enjoying this situation. Though unable to speak, she felt that the black monster was listening to her words. It was somewhat uplifting for her that there was someone to whom she could reveal her inner thoughts, at least at the moment of death.

Beep! Beep!

The mental resonance device fitted over her head like a shroud emitted a warning sound. It was inevitable. The ‘Shepherds’ who managed the scarce power facilities had all evacuated with their flock, and an enormous amount of power had been consumed to control the box, so it was time for the electricity to be cut off.

Thud…. Thud….

“You are crying….”

The creature was blankly staring at the fully unfolded ‘box.’ It was an incomprehensible act for a scholar.

For this moment, unlike her, who had prepared triple-layered Level 6 shields and mental stabilizers, and had her entire body paralyzed in advance with a neural anesthetic, this black mutation was directly exposed to the wavelengths of the box.

Even now, the slight movements causing violently twitching tendons and muscles indicated the level of pain, yet amidst the energy that should have erased his brain, he was staring desperately at the box.

“It’s pitiful, isn’t it? Is this how you treat yourself?”

Trauma ultimately arises from some kind of loss and is based on strong narcissism. Therefore, a Type 3 variant originating from trauma usually has a very strong self-love and mostly moves to achieve the life it has always desired.

Thus, the man before her was walking towards this unbearable pain in a manner that was most preferred in his life.

Suddenly, she felt a deep regret that this creature was about to perish here.

“….Do you not want to live?”

“….”

Shuffling—

There was no speech, but there was clearly a response.

“As you go, let me tell you one thing: the moment you destroy that thing over there, you will die. That much I can assert with certainty. It would mean the explosion of energy that fills this vast wasteland in an instant. You would die in the most painful way possible.”

“….”

“And even if you sacrifice your life to eliminate ‘the box’, humanity is doomed anyway. If it’s a sacrifice, it would be a meaningless one.”

“….”

Though her listener was silent, Li Xue did not stop her tale. It was a story she desperately wanted to share with someone. Comforting herself with the thought that old people are often talkative, she continued.

“I am the one who created the original Orpheus Project that became ‘the box’. It wasn’t such a big project at first. It began simply because my lab colleague, Cervantes, was saddened that his grandmother, who had raised him, had developed dementia, and we wondered if there was any way to alleviate it.”

Those were truly enjoyable times. Waking up in the middle of the night with ideas like ‘this might work’ and staying in the lab until the stars were gone and the sun had risen. Eating cheap $4 burritos from a burrito stall that opened at dawn with colleagues who had stayed up all night, grumbling about being given Pepsi instead of Coke. Watching the fruits of our labor, the Orpheus Project, grow step by step, filled with hope that one day their efforts would light up the world.

What a deluded hope it was.

“My life’s belief… that I could make the world better with what I learned and understood. My life was filled with denials of that belief.”

She had believed they could control the research as long as it was before the project grew and government interference became oppressive.

Even when people from the military demanded with guns drawn that they create a ‘human mental destruction device’, she had firmly resolved never to engage in such research, even if it meant death.

Then came the rain of fire on the lab. While she was pledging to use her knowledge for the world anew as a researcher at Dome, having heard that all her colleagues were dead.

When the Orpheus Project, thought to have disappeared forever with her colleagues in a bombing, reappeared in a completely twisted and altered form, how furious she had been.

How shocked she was when she found countless traces of her presumed dead colleague in that device.

And finally, as a high-ranking official at Dome, after digging through old military records, she found out that she and that colleague had been ‘spared’ to complete the project. That the government backing the research had turned all the other researchers to ashes to break the will of the remaining scientists who resisted making the weapon until the end, she realized this when the administration of District 38 quietly presented the incomplete monster before the last surviving researcher of Orpheus.

How nauseated she felt by that revolting reality.

“I finally realized… humanity is irredeemably corrupt. No matter how good the technology developed, they are a species specialized in using it in the most evil ways. Homo sapiens have evolved into such a species. Nuclear fission was a great discovery that could have saved humanity from an energy crisis, but its most famous use turned out to be the bomb. It then felt all too natural that the world had become this way. People always prayed to their god, ‘Please look at us.’, ‘Save us.’ This was His answer. The last chance for irredeemable humanity. Whether a broken vessel can be discarded and come back as a new one.”

Li Xue then fled from Dome and established Happy Blind. She was just speaking the truth. Let’s forget everything and let the new children create a new world.

It all must have been fate. That she came to this realization, that her research, like a child to her, returned to her transformed beyond life and death into a mass-slaughtering weapon. That a woman from a single-digit district, her skin all melted from radiation, came to her congregation and spoke of a monster like the end of the world.

Even after all her contemplation, when she could not complete ‘the box’, the deep-district creature the woman spoke of had all the features she needed. She entered the single-digit district, radiating as if one could touch the radioactivity with 120 congregants, and returned with only six, but they managed to collect a sample of it.

It all must have been destiny. Dying from terrible radiation contamination was of no concern to her. After all, her role would end before her life did.

“What a magnificent sight it was! The creature that rose like a mountain range spewed ash, flames, and radiation like an active volcano, and its body, bearing all the world’s pain like hell itself, was the most fitting judgment seat prepared for our end. A mutation is a being born from the deepest trauma, the loss of memory. Then, don’t we all have terrible memories that come to mind when we close our eyes?”

The sound of falling missiles is like a warning of judgment.

The shock and heat, and the mushroom cloud that announced the disappearance of everything nearby.

People being torn apart amid a hail of bullets.

The catalyst that made each tear into the other in this desolate hell.

“War. That’s what it was named, as if it shared the horrors it summoned with all living beings nearby! You have done this! This is your doing! As if scolding humanity. Isn’t it a judgment all too fitting for arrogant humanity? The place the melted woman found and the location we discovered were different, which means it was moving. We are all destined to die anyway. So, my child, I’d rather you live for my sake, at least for the last moments of your life. It’s too much of a waste for a being like you to die for these terrible people. In a world where all the good are dead, there’s no need to go to such lengths, is there?”

“…..”

Crack, creak!

Instead of responding, the monster began to move again. Muscles and nerves snapping, it moved slowly, one step at a time. If not with feet, then with hands. If hands stiffened, then with knees and shoulders.

“….will…. live….”

Perhaps it was from being cut by sharp mechanical debris, but the monster, revealing its blood-filled teeth through torn facial skin, spoke. The grating movement, like forcing a violently resisting body to move. It finally managed to grasp the core, but the other hand that heavily landed on it could not break the glass-like protective barrier surrounding the core.

Light leaked from the grip of the black monster.

Crack!

– [Screeeeeech-!!!!] –

As the protective barrier broke and blood leaked out, the box emitted an enormous wave along with a scream.

Even amid the intense pain coursing through her rigid body and the delusions racking her brain, Li Xue wanted to ask.

“If you…. want to live…. why do you…. bring about your own death….?”

Fizz, crack, crick-crack, crunch!

The grip on the core tightened, and in a blinding glow that made it impossible to open the eyes, the monster, as if sensing its end, lifted its head to meet her gaze.

Tears streamed down over the torn black leather.

“….like this…. will live….”

The monster was smiling, showing its white teeth.

At least in Li Xue’s last memory, it seemed to her that he was smiling.

“Perhaps…. the collector’s words…. might really be right….”

Thump.

For the era’s worst weapon of war, it was an anticlimactic end. A flash of light. A small noise like a bulb bursting.

A shock and energy far too excessive just to kill the two of them.

The light that had illuminated the surroundings and the noise that had pierced the eardrums vanished in an instant.

Around the altar, there was no longer any breath, nor any small sign of life.

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Translator’s Notes:

The End.

I’m sorry, that was a joke.

But seriously, the protagonist is dead, how do you want to continue? We’re not even halfway done with the story.