Chapter 93
It was like the flight of a monstrous bird.
Long ago, ancient people predicted that when a strange bird took flight, a dynasty would come to an end.
The snow-white hair, split into twin tails, fluttered as if heralding the end of an era.
The leap was powerful, but the landing was unbelievably light.
It was so light that, if he had landed on water, he might have made only the tiniest ripple.
And then Chief Lee Do-hyung descended to the ground.
ㅡFwoosh!
At a speed beyond imagination.
He took a single step and shot straight toward us in a gust of wind.
“Huh!”
He was moving so fast I couldn’t even register it properly. In the blink of an eye, his sword swung.
ㅡWhoosh!
The pressure from it sent my body flying—no, it wasn’t the pressure. Jaldi had urgently grabbed the back of my neck and thrown me aside. As I rolled, steadied myself, and looked forward,
a black line appeared across the building that had been our cover.
ㅡRumble!
And just like that, it began to collapse!
“D-damn it!”
If Jaldi hadn’t thrown me, that one devastating slash would have split me in two, or I’d have been crushed to death under the building!
He just cut a building down like that?!
“Run!”
Jaldi’s fierce shout snapped me to my senses.
She wants me to run away alone here!
ㅡKWAAAANG!
Immediately afterward, a blast rang out as if the world itself were shaking.
“Survive! Fall back toward the hospital! If I don’t make it, figure something out on your own!”
“Yes!”
I immediately turned and ran like a madman...!
A roar came from behind me.
Jaldi was fighting Chief Lee Do-hyung to save me. She had stayed behind and sacrificed herself during the vampire incident last time too. And now I was making her sacrifice herself again...!
ㅡKWAANG!
But right now there was nothing I could do except run. I could tell at a glance. The current Chief Lee Do-hyung had become a transcendent aberration. You could tell just by his twin tails.
There was no way Jaldi could win. If she faced him, she’d only lose and die. Of course, Chief Lee Do-hyung seemed to have lost his mind, so maybe there was a chance to escape somehow, but if that didn’t work, it would be over in an instant.
For now, retreat toward the hospital.
Then, once I’d watched the situation, I’d think about how to deal with it.
“Huff!”
This was an unexpected development, but right now I was calmer than ever.
I couldn’t let Jaldi die. To begin with, if she died, I’d have no way out either. The hospital escape method through admission counseling only works if a man and a woman are a pair. There was a way to be readmitted as a patient, but would that even work? I had no idea what would happen if I were readmitted.
Besides, with Chief Lee Do-hyung rampaging around in this insane world, was the hospital really safe? That was the question. Every building in the world had been wrecked to pieces, so why the hell was the hospital still intact?
No matter what, I felt like some major secret had to be hidden here.
I can’t do this alone.
I have to be with Jaldi.
ㅡRUMBLE!
All the while I was running, an overwhelming blast kept coming from behind me. As expected of a Bureau Chief, he seemed to be handling it somehow.
But.
Something suddenly began to come into view from beyond there.
A huge amount of something... what the hell is that?
ㅡSkrrt.
I stopped while running and looked more closely.
It was the residents of this world.
Monsters with their eyes and mouths sewn shut were swarming in from beyond there!
“This fucking hell...!”
Why are the bastards who weren’t visible suddenly appearing?!
Could it be because of Chief Lee Do-hyung?!
There are too many!
“...”
“...”
“...”
The bastards were walking this way. There was no sound, and no grotesque movement either. They were just advancing as a group. The sight of an abnormal mass moving normally like that looked unbelievably eerie.
“Ha ha.”
If this had been before.
I would have gone insane from terror at this sight.
“I’m not scared anymore, you sons of bitches!”
But right now I’m not scared at all. Those bastards are at most just pathetic monsters that can be destroyed. What’s truly scary is the hospital surgery and something transcendent like Chief Lee Do-hyung.
My nerves are way too thick now to be scared of these lousy little fry!
ㅡRatatat!
Gunfire rang out.
Is Jaldi the one shooting?
Or the fake Management Bureau agents?
I immediately took cover behind nearby debris and searched for the source of the gunfire. It was fine to stop for a moment. Those sewn-together beings were slow anyway. I could check the gunfire first and then move.
I wasn’t scared, so I could act calmly, and that would make me safer.
As I looked around.
“Shit, shit! Shit!”
I saw one agent running while shooting at the sewn-together ones. That agent was none other than Jinseop. Sunglasses nowhere to be seen, he was spraying bullets with a face full of terror.
Why was he alone?
Had he fled alone?
Or had they broken apart?
Both were possible.
With Chief Lee Do-hyung rampaging too, and the sewn-together ones suddenly rushing in like a tidal wave, there was no clever solution to this situation. It was entirely possible for people to fall behind while running away.
“Don’t come any closer, you bastards!”
ㅡTatatatat!
Watching Jinseop spray his submachine gun, I thought.
This is.
A pretty good chance.
Ever since I found out he’d become a fake Management Bureau agent, I’d always wanted to make contact with him. But I had no time, and more importantly, getting information on fake Management Bureau agents was difficult, so I hadn’t made any progress.
In that sense, being able to face Jinseop one-on-one right now was a huge opportunity.
Of course, he’d probably identify me as a Management Bureau entity called Grong, but either way, just making contact would be a gain.
ㅡClick!
Jinseop started reloading with a frantic look on his face.
“Huff!”
In the meantime, a sewn-together one appeared and interfered with Jinseop. Here, Jinseop showed how inexperienced he was. Panicking, he dropped the magazine.
If he had been like he was during the Giant Apocalypse, he would have kicked it aside skillfully and reloaded calmly. But right now none of that showed. He was acting exactly like a real rookie agent who had been scared stiff and lost his composure.
This guy actually went for a suicide attack?
How had that much conviction been instilled in him in such a short time?
Whatever it was, if I was going to step in, now was the chance.
Jinseop, I’m coming!
“Hey!”
“Uh...?”
I pulled a pistol from my coat and put a bullet through the head of the bastard approaching Jinseop. The moment he fell, Jinseop shouted in shock.
“Grong?! Don’t tell me that’s Grong?!”
As expected, this bastard knows me!
The bastard hurriedly pulled out a fresh magazine.
Of course, I didn’t let him reload.
“Stop! Stand still!”
“Damn it! Where the hell did you come from all of a sudden...!”
I immediately shoulder-tackled him and shoved Jinseop away.
“Ugh!”
Jinseop fell over, and I lunged at the bastard. For now, I grabbed his arms so he couldn’t do anything stupid and shouted.
“Fake Management Bureau agent! Am I right!”
“What?! You’re the fake one, you monster bastard! For the Management Bu-”
What the hell, is this crazy bastard some kind of Allahu Akbar–shouting suicide bomber?!
“You were planning to blow yourself up, weren’t you!”
I stopped him right away.
“Hurk!”
This crazy bastard tries to self-destruct at every opportunity!
What is he, some kind of infested Terran?!
“Quit screwing around and get up! Temporary cooperation! You don’t want to die here either, do you?!”
I barked at him and hauled him to his feet by force. He still wasn’t accepting reality. With a guy like this, just shouting at him and dragging him along is the best method.
“What...?”
“Can’t you see the monsters coming?! Let’s move!”
“For the Management Bu-”
“Argh!”
What a fucking frustrating bastard!
ㅡBANG!
I immediately flipped Jinseop over with a shoulder throw.
“Ugh!”
I didn’t want to do this to Jinseop, my soul partner, but the situation was bad. Even as we spoke, the sewn-together ones were closing in little by little.
“Take it off!”
“U, ugh...!”
I roughly tore open Jinseop’s suit jacket. As expected, there was a bomb inside his suit. Honestly, even a suicide bomber would be impressed by that level of preparation.
I took the bomb out and threw it far away.
“N-no!”
“What do you mean, no? Song Jinseop! Get a grip!”
“What?!”
The moment I said his name, his eyes flew wide open.
“How do you know my name?! Don’t tell me you guys know our agents’ information!”
“You could say that.”
As I said that, I fired my pistol and put a bullet through the head of a sewn-together one coming from the side.
“But does that matter right now? Temporary alliance, Song Jinseop of the fake Management Bureau. We can’t die here. Get up. We’re running together.”
“Shut up! Like hell I’d team up with you monster bastards!”
“I’m not a monster.”
That reaction was all too vivid.
Jinseop is neither a monster nor an aberration.
Likewise, I am also human.
“A monster is something like Chief Lee Do-hyung over there. Do I look like a monster to you?”
“Y-you might look human now, but you could transform into a monster...!”
Transform?
Is that how he’s taking it?
I thought it over.
To Jinseop right now, I looked like a “human.” He was thinking that you only became a monster by transforming.
Then what about Spangdal-ssi?
They saw Spangdal-ssi as a monster. It was the same kind of monster I’d seen in the Management Bureau’s dark basement.
Is that because they distinguish between the forms before and after transformation?
Whatever the case, if I interrogated Jinseop, I’d be able to find out.
“If you’re not transforming, then let’s go! Right now, surviving is the top priority!”
“Uh...!”
And so I forcibly dragged along the still-uncomprehending Jinseop and made our escape.
* * *
We ran for a long time.
The explosions grew farther away, and the sewn-together ones were no longer visible.
It felt like we’d moved quite far from the source of the incident.
“Let’s rest here.”
I leaned against the wall.
Jinseop glared at me.
“Fake Management Bureau agent Song Jinseop. What the hell is that look?”
“Shut up! You freak! Who are you calling fake?”
“Why am I the freak?”
“You’re the fake Management Bureau Grong!”
“Is that what it says in the Management Bureau database?”
“H-how do you know that...!”
At this point, Song Jinseop was still inexperienced.
Then let’s try to shake him up a little.
“Song Jinseop. You’re still a high school student, aren’t you?”
“What?!”
“You haven’t even been an agent for that long. It couldn’t have been more than a few months.”
“...!”
Jinseop’s eyes shook violently.
I knew that because I’d gone through the Giant Apocalypse with him.
At the start of the apocalypse, the bastard was a high school student. And then suddenly he’s an agent? He was still a high schooler up until the building incident, and if he became an agent after that, then in terms of time, it couldn’t have been more than a few months.
What on earth happened in that short time?
How was such conviction built up over such a short period?
“For someone that inexperienced, you’re awfully devoted. You. Why did you become an agent?”