Chapter 221
Cheonchilbaek ran. He forced his legs, which had completely lost their strength, to keep moving.
It was the time Samsao had bought by risking his life. He couldn’t waste a single moment.
He could see the half-melted body of the inmate, hanging limply, half-emerged from the inquisitor’s chest.
Because the inquisitor’s height was so towering, even the dangling hand was higher than Cheonchilbaek’s head.
He wouldn’t reach it like this. He had to go in deeper.
Just getting hit by a kick from the inquisitor, who was thrashing wildly while caught by Samsao, would result in at least a severe injury. But he couldn’t hesitate.
Crisis detection activated fiercely. His overheated brain screamed at having to willingly walk into a thorny path.
Swoosh!
A lump of flesh that stretched out abnormally from near the frame’s armpit crossed over his head. It was such a perilous attack that even he didn’t know how he dodged it.
He deflected the suddenly bursting green blood by practically lying down on the lump of flesh, and narrowly dodged the kicks pouring down haphazardly, like swatting away an annoying mosquito, by sticking close to the fuselage.
A series of evasions like a stunt that would be impossible to replicate if asked to do it again. Cheonchilbaek leaped up, feeling as if he were possessed by something, and snatched the controller in the inmate’s hand.
He tried to snatch it. The problem was that the grip of the inmate, who had turned into a zombie, was clutching the control device far too strongly.
Unlike the strength of a researcher who had been locked in a solitary cell for a long time, his strength was so great that it couldn’t be taken away in a short time.
=How dare you, the Lord! Try to take it from me!=
At the inquisitor’s rage, the lumps of flesh trembled blackly and the sprouted eyeballs turned red. There was no time to hesitate here.
In this crisis situation, Cheonchilbaek thought of a breakthrough. In this simulation, his name was 'Stealer'.
He bounced up again and aimed for the controller. However, this time was a little different.
“”
GM
: At the player’s request, a
[Thievery]
check will proceed. Please roll the dice.”
His character concept was a thief. Fittingly, among all his stats, the value for [Thievery] was the highest. A whopping stat of 4!
The stat that had never been used even once was shining at this final moment.
He didn’t even consider the possibility of failure. There was no way he could fail with such a high value.
Cheonchilbaek jumped and threw the dice over the wriggling lump of flesh.
⚄ ⚃ ⚂ ⚄
“”
GM
: Adding the modifier <1 0 0 1> to the
[Thievery]
stat of 4 makes a total of
6 (Superhuman)
, so the result is…
Success
! Your hands become as light as a feather and as stealthy as the dark.”
It was definitely different from before. Cheonchilbaek himself felt his Movement/Agility become surprisingly nimble.
As he slipped his hand in and out as if swiping the air without resistance, the controller was suddenly in his grasp.
As the superhuman level of thievery ability guaranteed not only the stealing but also the subsequent escape process, after running lightly, he widened the distance from the inquisitor in the blink of an eye.
As soon as the refreshing Blessing of Thievery that enveloped his entire body disappeared, Cheonchilbaek hastily looked down at the controller.
“What is this?”
As if only humans with good brains could use it, it was plastered with buttons bearing magnate and symbols that were entirely incomprehensible.
The alien languages that looked like the alphabet but weren’t made his mind go faint just by looking at them.
There was no time to think. Cheonchilbaek figured 'whatever' and blindly pressed the green button hard.
It was green, so surely touching it wouldn’t cause the restraints to suddenly explode, right?
Clack - .
The sound of the restraints unlocking could be heard.
And the strongest supernatural ability user of Glitch Hall, no, Dusk City, who had only been quietly watching until now, stood up from his seat.
The model prisoner of the Flame ability, ace.
He didn’t know how Paradox had sweet-talked him.
He might have lured him with sweet words of leaving together, or he might have awakened him to the cold reality that he would be eaten by the inquisitor anyway if things stayed like this.
But the process wasn’t important. The important thing was the result that ace had decided to help them.
“reporter”
He spat out casually and released his ability.
His body, which had heated up while spewing heat as red as lava, turned pale as if letting go completely.
And as he snapped his fingers, the flames that had been suppressed while trapped in the restraints, condensed and swollen, bloomed upwards.
A flash of light that seemed to damage one’s vision and an explosion.
―――――――――――――!
More than anything else, his ears were ruined first.
Without sound, tinnitus, shock, and vibration swept through his eardrums. Even though he had definitely widened the distance enough, Cheonchilbaek was swept up in the massive explosion, sent flying in a spin, and slammed down.
Because the sprinkler had activated, a faint stream of water soaked his body.
Cheonchilbaek regained his senses while lying face down in the contrasting sensations of being damp and hot at the same time.
His whole body ached as if it were broken. His vision was entirely blood-red. Should he consider it fortunate since it was better than not being able to see at all?
The surroundings were completely engulfed in flames.
Fragments of the pitch-black cube-shaped Restraint Chamber that had been entirely blown apart were lodged everywhere, including in his body.
The spreading flames stimulated his coldly cooling body.
Cheonchilbaek stood up, dragging one leg that absolutely refused to move, with the single thought that he couldn’t die like this.
There was absolutely no sensation in his blackened, burnt leg. His heart sank at the thought that if something went wrong, it had gone terribly wrong.
Repeating inwardly that it was all just a simulation, he continued to move forward with a groan.
“The other people…”
Perhaps his brain had gotten used to the pain of burning flesh, as even such stray thoughts occurred to him.
He didn’t know about ace. He wasn’t his colleague in the first place, and since he was a character in the simulation, he was superior.
However, Samsao and Paradox…
His heart sank with a thud again.
If he was the last remaining survivor, then everything was now up to him.
It was truly terrible, the chilling sensation that success or failure all rested in his hands, the heavy burden pressing down on his shoulders.
Because of the acting, he saw a blurry afterimage. From beyond there, someone was approaching this way.
'Paradox!'
That thought came to him first.
As expected of Paradox.
There was no way the leader, who seemed to know everything, would have died there. Since he had set the board himself, he must have also figured out a way to make it out alive, right?
Color returned to his exhausted body. He felt lighter at the thought of having put down his burden. He tried to get closer, but he felt something strange.
The silhouette visible beyond the acting was too big. Paradox’s fat character was quite a brute, but that size was impossible.
That was…
“Nonsense. It survived?”
Cheonchilbaek collapsed on the spot. Just being swept up in the aftermath had almost killed him.
But did it make any sense that the inquisitor, who had taken that massive explosion head-on, was still alive?
It was impossible. No matter how much the inquisitor was a monster against whom supernatural abilities didn’t work well…
Shaking his head didn’t make reality any less real. The acting cleared, and the inquisitor’s figure was revealed.
Underground
Blackened lumps of flesh were still sizzling and giving off the smell of roasting meat; mechanical devices melted into a vermilion hue; and the remains of the monster, distorted and crushed, unable to maintain an intact form, squirmed and clumsily crawled forward.
=U, w, o, o, o, o…=
As if it had lost the ability to speak languages fluently like before, it only let out eerie groans and glared with its burst eyeballs.
The desire contained within them was clear.
Appetite.
Appetite is an instinct to devour a supernatural ability user to secure an energy source and recover its physical condition, which had become a half-dead mess.
That terrible monster was holding him back even right before its death. With a sick and tired feeling, Cheonchilbaek turned his steps and hurriedly ran away.
The fortunate thing was that the inquisitor was also greatly weakened, just as much as his own condition was poor.
He didn’t have the confidence to fight and win, but if it was just running away, there might be a chance.
His leg! If only this damn dead leg would move properly!
Blaming his innocent leg, he struggled forward.
How long had he moved?
He saw something.
“Core Room”
It was hope.
The arrow was pointing straight ahead between the hazy acting. The destination was right in front of him.
He increased his speed. Just a little, just a little faster!
= H, e, u, u, u, u, k
…
=
The acting that became hazier the further he went, the splashing streams of water, and the drenched floor were present.
Cheonchilbaek stopped dead in his tracks.
The sound wasn’t only coming from behind.
Crisis detection, which had become fully functional again after the Restraint Chamber exploded, rang out.
There was something in front of him too. No, there was going to be.
Sure enough, the figure of the miserably ruined inquisitor, which had definitely been chasing him from behind, gradually began to be seen from the front as well.
It wasn’t just the front. Behind him, the hideous thing was still terrifyingly crawling after him.
There were two Inquisitors.
He knew the supernatural ability that made such a bizarre phenomenon possible.
“Clone Generation…”
Damn it, Osai.