Chapter 248

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 248

The Experimenter VII

The roots resembled human veins, stretching from the Sacrifice in Busan—across the entire earth—like blood vessels. Starting from this being, who still faintly held Ah-ryeon’s form, the branching veins spread out like a spiderweb.

Now that the world had shrunk down to almost nothing, it wouldn’t be wrong to call the being before me the Heart of the World Tree.

“Ah...”

Behind me, Dok-seo let out a small breath. It might have been awe, or perhaps despair. After all, there had to be some difference in “resolution” between the concept of world annihilation that she had only ever encountered through “words” and the reality now unfolding before her.

“The whole world... It’s burning.”

It was exactly as Dok-seo muttered.

While I held the Sacrifice, I spread my Aura. The dark tendrils spread from the Tower of Babel, flowing swiftly through all of Busan, through the narrowest alleys, the slums, and even past the last line of defense.

- Ah...

All over, those who had been injured by the Sacrifice and whose limbs had turned to vines lost their balance and fell.

The vegetative humans, whose bodies had fully transformed into trees and flowers, began burning to black and gray without exception, their petals scattering like flames.

The violet wisteria of Dang Seo-rin, once blooming alone in Haeundae, also burst into flames, scattering purple.

There was no pain.

“......”

Even though my Aura had reached an extraordinary level, it wasn’t easy to create such a grand sea of flames at the end of a war.

Yes. If the Corrupted being before me had rejected my Aura even slightly, this would have been impossible.

But the Sacrifice had not resisted. Despite having the perfect opportunity to overtake the city and paint it in her own color a step ahead of the Monster Wave, she only quietly accepted my Aura and burned.

She, who had postponed world annihilation for 61 hours, 11 minutes, and 32 seconds, now erased the threat of annihilation herself.

Fwoosh...

When all the vegetative humans turned to ash along with the final line of defense, the Heart of the World Tree too crumbled to ashes and collapsed on the spot. Even the outline of Ah-ryeon dispersed like dust into the wind from the terrace.

A moment of silence ensued.

“Hm.”

Do-hwa was the first to break the silence.

Glancing down, she looked at the Monster Wave, which was now rushing freely toward the Tower of Babel with the last line of defense destroyed.

“What’s your next move...?”

“Our paths diverge here.” I stood up, brushing off none of the ashes on my face or clothes. “If you want to keep resisting, even just to extend humanity’s survival by a single second, you should retreat to the Inunaki Tunnel and join up with Seo Gyu. If that gets taken, every Anomaly imprisoned in SG Net will be unleashed at once.”

“Ohhh.”

“With the Monster Wave and the SG Net escapees mixed in, we’ll have a complete pandemonium on our hands. The Inunaki Tunnel is well suited for a siege. If you’re determined, you could hold out for over a hundred days.”

“Aha... I see. So that’s why you chose such a narrow tunnel as a base—because it was intended for this kind of crisis in the first place?”

“Precisely.”

Do-hwa adjusted her monocle. “But since the goal of this run is to capture the Outer God tied to Mastermind Syndrome... Keeping the SG Net Admin alive doesn’t hold much value now, does it?”

“No.”

“Right...”

Do-hwa picked up a radio. Originally, 31 radios were prepared on the operations table in front of her. Of those, 30 had been destroyed.

Strangely, the last one hadn’t been used once throughout the entire battle.

Holding the final radio, she said, “The time is now. Kill him...”

Bang!

Through the radio came a burst of static and the sound of a gunshot.

All of us on the terrace stared wide-eyed at Do-hwa. She chuckled.

“Oh... There’s no need to thank me. Given everything we’ve been through, I figured it was on me to handle this...”

Before I could fully grasp the meaning,

Boom!

a deafening noise rang out from the waters off Busan. It was in the direction of the shared entrance to Inunaki Tunnel, Dream Casino, and Café hideout. A sudden blizzard swept across, instantly freezing the sea’s surface. From beneath the ice burst forth Anomalies in all manner of bizarre forms, marking the collapse of the cyber-prison, SG Net.

In other words, Seo Gyu’s death.

“You... You killed him!”

Dok-seo came to her senses and grabbed Do-hwa by the collar.

“You killed Seo Gyu? Using the National Road Management Corps? How could you? He was our ally!”

“I was never particularly close to him...”

“What does that matter?! We’ve been working together, trying to prevent humanity’s extinction! This is insane! Are you stupid? How could you betray―”

Bang!

Dok-seo fell silent, releasing her grip. Then, she slumped downward.

Bang!

Do-hwa pulled the trigger again—a confirming shot. In her hand was a gun all too familiar to me.

“Hm. She may have been the Outer God’s apostle or whatever, but she couldn’t resist a weapon crafted to put a bullet in the heart of her master. This is the compatibility you mentioned, isn’t it?”

A Walther PPK, Chekhov’s Gun. A weapon specifically created for slaying the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. After the campaign, the weapon had been locked up in the underground prison of the National Road Management Corps headquarters.

“Just as I thought. The tactics for attacking the Outer God would work just as well against the apostle. My guess turned out to be right...”

“Commander Do-hwa.”

Do-hwa let out a laugh from deep within. Her head tilted to the side as she said it:

“I’ll see you in hell...”

Bang!

The doctor’s coat billowed as Do-hwa collapsed. The gun that had spent its final bullet rolled limply from her hand.

“Wow...”

“......”

“Really, um. That was incredible, Teacher.”

Now, the only two survivors left on the terrace were Yo-hwa and me. And in just a few more minutes, with the world rapidly collapsing under the onslaught of Anomalies flooding in from both the last line of defense and the Inunaki Tunnel, we might as well have been “the last two survivors in the world.”

From the terrace, Yo-hwa looked down at the ground. She clicked her tongue.

“I must’ve run the Reincarnation Project simulation hundreds of times, but, wow, real 3D... The impact of it all just doesn’t compare. You go through this hundreds of times?”

“Each time is different. When the Monster Wave destroys the world, it usually plays out this way.”

“And... are you okay with this? Mentally speaking?”

“I told you already.”

I covered Do-hwa’s body with her doctor’s coat, and used Ah-ryeon’s saintly veil to cover Dok-seo’s. After a brief moment of silence, I turned.

“It usually ends like this.”

Yo-hwa sighed. “Ah... So every time I died in other cycles, you performed these funerals for me too, Teacher.”

“You’re a Guild Leader who roams the frontlines constantly. You’re so free-spirited that I’ve always worried about you.”

“If I’d known, maybe I would’ve stayed tucked away at Baekwha Girls’ High a bit more... I guess it’s too late to regret wandering around just to blow off steam now, right? Next cycle, I won’t remember any of this?”

“Mm.”

“And if I leave a message for myself, I won’t understand it, will I...? Wait a sec. Déjà vu.” She gasped. “Didn’t you once tell me this was my own last will from a past cycle?”

“Good memory.”

“I’m such an idiot...” Yo-hwa groaned, clutching her head. It was her way of comforting others.

I caressed Yo-hwa’s cheek, and my palm came away smeared with soot. This kid had spent more than two days fighting in the war just as I had, becoming a complete wreck in the process.

“Let’s meet again next time, Yo-hwa.”

“......”

“Thank you, always.”

“Me too, Teacher.”

Yo-hwa placed her hand on the back of mine. She smiled and rested her cheek against it.

“Even though...” She hesitated. “Even though it’s not always, thank you for coming to find me even knowing we’d part like this. Please take care of the next me.”

“If you stop kicking the guards every time we meet in the hallway, I’ll consider it.”

“Haha... Ah. I miss it already. Already...”

She closed her eyes.

“Already...”

When she opened them again—

Her once-red eyes were now tinged with the emptiness of Infinite Void and gleamed with an eerie light.

“Damn.”

The first word Infinite Void uttered when it opened its eyes. It pushed my hand away, muttering a nervous string of Damn! Damn! Damn!

“You’re insane, aren’t you? You’re just a human—how can a human...? Even with the ability to regress, how is this possible?”

“Prepare yourself. Soon, the Outer Gods will extend their hands.”

“Which ones?” Infinite Void laughed hollowly. “There are three Outer Gods descending on this tiny world right now! Ah, including me, that’s four! Add in the real mastermind of Mastermind Syndrome, and that’s five!”

“......”

“And you... you held out in this hell for over 60 hours? A mere mortal. This is impossible...!”

“If you want to kiss my ass, work on honeyed up that tongue. Praise from an Anomaly doesn’t do a thing for me.”

“You’re insane...” Infinite Void muttered, sucking in a breath. “No, wait. I’m technically the Enemy Who Turned Ally, right? Plus, I’m forced into this miserable human form, with a human’s mind. So... right! This could work out! If I ride the Undertaker Bus from here on, wouldn’t it be my win as long as I survive?”

“If you’re declaring full surrender, I’ll accept it any time. Are you ready to abandon all your powers?”

“Aaaaah...! No! I don’t want to become human! What is this, with emotions and this pathetic memory span, repeating the same damned actions and thoughts over and over? Why would I ever want to be reduced to that!”

It bit its nails.

“Wait a sec... Isn’t even this freak-out a bit too human? Aaaaaah! Undertaker! Undertaker! I curse you! You’re an Anomaly that turns others into humans! A human Anomaly!”

“Keep it up.”

I looked down from the Tower of Babel. The ground was now swarming with Anomalies, colored black and red. Some were even crawling up the tower’s walls.

“And regardless of whether you surrender, I’ve already achieved this cycle’s goal.”

“What?”

“It’s down to just us two.” I turned my gaze to Infinite Void. “Show yourself, Mastermind.”

Infinite Void’s mouth dropped open. And from that opening came a voice—a bizarre mixture of Yo-hwa’s and a mechanical hum.

“That’s right. I cast NPC Creation on Commander Do-hwa. While you were gone.”

Bzzz, crackle.

Like his vocal cords resonated with a radio, static came from Infinite Void’s throat. At the same time, from the 30 broken radios on Do-hwa’s table and the last one she had used, came Infinite Void’s voice.

- Undertaker, I was waiting for you to come back and deal with Ah-ryeon.

- Once the city burned—truly, completely—you’d be left exhausted. “That’s right. I planned it so Commander Do-hwa could pull the trigger without you being able to stop her, even for a moment.”

- And that’s not all, right? Seo Gyu was already under my control. That gunshot through the radio—that was Seo Gyu pulling the trigger on himself.

“To put it simply, SG Net’s prison was under my control the whole time.”

- Why eliminate the Saintess first? Why kill Yu Ji-won? Obviously, it was to get rid of anyone who might track me, Yo-hwa.

“Those two were a nuisance.”

- Yeah! A nuisance!

“Every bit of data the Saintess observed would’ve been handed to the Undertaker. And any ‘fog of war’ on this battlefield would be lifted. If the fog is gone, I can’t manipulate causality. Same with Yu Ji-won. Her Mini-Map tracked everyone, anytime, anywhere. With that, I couldn’t create or manipulate causality. I couldn’t warp it. I couldn’t take it.”

- Create?

- Manipulate?

- Warp?

The radios crackled.

- What are you talking about?

- When did we manipulate anything?

- There’s no warping. Seo Gyu was brainwashed through NPC Creation, shot himself. That really happened in this world.

- Yeah! The Undertaker’s causality can never tell what’s true or false!

“No.”

Infinite Void muttered blankly.

“No, no, no. Yo-hwa didn’t use her power on Do-hwa or Seo Gyu. I made sure to ‘collect’ that data. This is my data. You can’t alter my data.”

- ..........

- ..........

“The white birch-patterned hospital gown, the red trace of blood on the patient’s bed from the red spider lily, ripped apart in the school’s garden...”

I spoke.

“Infinite Void.”

It turned sharply toward me.

The “human” expressions it had shown while agonizing and talking were now completely gone, and in their place were endlessly blank eyes. In its pupils, the colors red, white, black, blue, and yellow flashed in continuous pulses.

“For this run, I’ll return some of your powers.”

“......”

“I’ll give you control of the Bakus. Break the hourglass.”

Shatter!

As soon as I finished, it pulled out the hourglass from his waist and crushed it in his hands. It was the glass bottle that had imprisoned the Doppelganger.

From where Yo-hwa stood, “colors” spread, blanketing the once-red skies and ground instantly.

It wasn’t a single color. It kept changing, endlessly, never resting for even a second.

The blue of the earth from space, the green of foxtail grass, the brown of ants, the black of a charging smartwatch, the red flush on a newborn’s cheeks, and then, and then,

Yo-hwa’s body had disappeared.

- Ah.

- Ah?

- Ah. Ah.

The radios screamed with static. And then, silence.

Against the black background, a gasping “Ah” glowed yellow. Even that yellow quickly dissolved into blackness. The letters “Ah,” “Ah?” “Ah.” painted themselves in succession before melting away.

- Ah.

Then, scarlet letters appeared in the sky.

- Found you.

In that moment, the sky tore open.

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