Chapter 81 |
The Inquisitor III
To start with the conclusion, Go Yuri’s solution of "Why don't we just burst the heads of the fairies 100 more times to get perfect information?" did not come to fruition.
It wasn’t because my tender heart suddenly sprouted sympathy, thinking that such cruelty was too much.
Just looking at my brother, Seo Gyu, who suffered from anger management issues and had his head delivered express by the fairies more than 50 times, sympathy was out of the question.
I, the Undertaker, oppose racial discrimination but proudly consider myself a thorough species chauvinist. My emotions only open a two-way street for Homo sapiens.
The reason Go Yuri's solution failed was simple.
"Initiate extermination."
"Initiate extermination."
As soon as we left the interrogation room, a swarm of fairies rushed at Go Yuri.
Fairies appeared from every direction—hallways, ceilings, above, below, everywhere. They all had identical faces and emotionless expressions.
Even though it was quite a cosmic horror scene, my attention was focused elsewhere.
‘The fairies didn’t use their usual speech pattern?’
Good grief. It was a cultural shock.
Is that even legal?
Before my tongue could express its shock, the trained reflexes of a seasoned Regressor kicked in.
“You bastards! From where!”
Bam! Wrapping my thighs and calves with aura, I kicked and shattered the three fairies charging directly at Go Yuri.
But it didn’t end there.
The fairies fell from my kick, but then their bodies swelled like red balloons.
The small bodies of the fairies rapidly bloated with red liquid, and the scene played out in slow motion right before my eyes.
A chill ran down my spine.
‘Self-destruct!’
The aim wasn’t to attack us directly but to close the distance.
I quickly wrapped my entire body in aura protection and pulled Go Yuri into a tight embrace.
“Ah-”
Go Yuri’s lips moved, but her voice was drowned out by the subsequent explosion.
KABOOM!
The entire Cheongsong Prison shook from the explosion. Although it was remodeled to incarcerate fairies, the thick walls couldn't entirely block the blast.
Of course, they couldn't penetrate my barrier either.
“Damn…”
Everything collapsed. Walls, pillars, ceilings, all fell apart.
Concrete chunks pounded against my aura-shielded body.
“Hoo. Go Yuri, are you okay? Can you speak?”
“Yes, thanks to you, guild leader. You’re amazing.”
Despite her words, I could hear her coughing from the dust stirred by the collapsing debris.
Srrr… The surrounding landscape visible through the dust clouds was drenched as if hit by red water bombs. It must have been the LCL liquid expelled from the exploded fairies.
Amid the chaos, one fairy still floated in the air, looking intact.
“You… you bastard…”
“I request a dialogue.”
A fairy spoke as if nothing had happened.
“However, there are conditions. I demand to speak with you alone—”
Boom! I immediately dashed forward and crushed the fairy’s head.
I wiped the sticky, bloody mucus from my fingers.
“Don’t make me laugh. You pull a suicide bombing, and now that I’m still standing, you want to talk? As expected, murderous psychopaths have a completely different mindset.”
-Caution. No questions will be entertained.
Then an astonishing thing happened.
Liquid from the surrounding puddles began to boil and quickly formed the shapes of fairies.
But they were incomplete shapes. From various puddles, only heads, mouths, and fingers of fairies were forming, each twitching independently. Damn it.
-No demands will be entertained. If anyone interferes with our conversation through filming, recording, or eavesdropping, all terminal entities in this zone and any future encounters will be immediately destroyed.
“……”
-You have 30 seconds.
I frowned and looked to the side.
Go Yuri was giving a mixed smile, both troubled and amused.
“Hmm. It’s okay. Don’t worry about me, guild leader.”
“Really? …Thanks for understanding.”
“Haha. Instead, could you take me to Busan next time you go? I’m interested in meeting your friend, Dang Seo-rin.”
“Hmm. Sure, let’s do that.”
There was no reason for me to feel indebted to Go Yuri.
Of course, there was no reason to leave all the other guild members behind and take only Go Yuri on [Tutorial Reversed World] missions. Moreover, it was clear that Dang Seo-rin would hate anyone else joining us on our food trips.
Even if I set all that aside, laughing like ‘haha’ after witnessing all this chaos wasn’t normal. Yet, all I felt was a slight guilt for excluding such a kind girl from the conversation.
Your brain has melted, Undertaker.
Step. Go Yuri’s footsteps sounded like a rattlesnake’s as they tread over the building debris. Step—her snake-like tail disappeared behind a steel-reinforced concrete pillar, and the fairy spoke.
-28 seconds elapsed.
-We have confirmed your willingness to converse.
“You can speak normally.”
I looked away from the direction Go Yuri left and tried to focus on the fairies. Damn it. There were too many of them bubbling up like pot foam.
“Did you drop the speech pattern because it was a facade all this time?”
-Is that your first question?
The liquid fairies stared at me. Despite their expressionless faces and voices, I could feel a tinge of "Are you serious?" from them. It was slightly fascinating.
“Yes.”
-The speech pattern of the terminal entities was set by configuration.
-Location: Korean Peninsula, Language: Korean, Subject: Koreans, Environment: Apocalypse.
-We chose the speech pattern that would lower human suspicion the most.
“What? That crap? …Well, now that I think about it, it does sound weak and silly.”
-Margin of error.
-Responses to terminal entities vary among individuals due to the average setting.
-Proposal. How about we alternate questions and answers?
“...…”
I shrugged.
It was a gesture to indicate that I didn’t mind, but more importantly, I wanted to test how much “they” could understand non-verbal communication.
-Consent confirmed. To prevent misunderstanding, I’ll clarify that our objective was not to exterminate you.
“So what? You intended to kill my comrades? What’s the point of killing someone with nothing but bones left?”
-It’s our turn to ask a question.
-Why are you cooperating with the pink-haired entity?
Dozens of liquid eyes focused on me.
“Pink-haired entity…? Do you mean Go Yuri?”
-Affirmative and negative.
-The entity has no specific proper noun or defined technical term. To maintain neutrality, we temporarily use ‘the pink-haired entity you accompanied at Cheongsong Prison,’ shortened to ‘pink-haired entity.’
-Please answer the question.
I frowned.
“Entity this, entity that… Why don’t you just use her name? Go Yuri is my guild member. She serves me as the guild leader. Does associating with someone need a grand reason?”
-…….
-…….
The distorted fairy forms, the ‘Fairy King,’ stared at me.
A brief silence followed.
-We understand.
“I’ll ask a question now. You, the so-called Fairy King. Why did you summon void zones in a perfectly normal world? And why did you force innocent people into survival games through the tutorial?”
-…….
“For fun? Entertainment? Like in many creations, did you want to toy with humans as if we were playthings?”
This was not just my question. It was the question of all awakeners who experienced the tutorial phenomenon, and perhaps humanity as a whole.
I was merely the one voicing it.
I waited for the Fairy King’s answer as if I were the first human to question a god.
-We will break down the question.
-First, we need to point out your misunderstanding.
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”
-We did not summon the entire void into this world. We merely managed the phenomenon called ‘tutorial.’
Ah.
Instead of rage towards the Fairy King, disappointment welled up inside me. If so, the being before me wasn’t the master of all anomalies.
I, in my 89th cycle, believed I could still return the world to its original state, unlike my current 1183rd cycle self.
-Second, we do not conduct experiments for amusement. Observing survival, literally, is our goal.
“What?”
-We would like to ask you in return.
-If you were thrown into the void environment without any preparation and without undergoing our ‘tutorial’ process, what do you think your survival rate would be?
“……”
-Calculating within a range of 365 days, your survival rate is only 1.76%.
-Meanwhile, the average survival rate of awakeners in the tutorial is close to 31%.
-If one survives the tutorial, their subsequent 365-day survival rate soars to 69%.
“So, what? Are you saying you prepared this death game parade for us? That’s really generous of you. I’m almost in tears.”
-We have no benevolence. We have no malevolence.
-Please judge whether our ‘experiment’ contradicts your purpose.
At that moment, I sensed movement behind me and quickly turned around. Ten or so fairies, who had apparently regenerated, were creeping towards me.
Our eyes met.
-…….
“Damn it!”
I quickly summoned aura and harvested the fairies' heads. Pop! Their heads exploded like strawberry juice.
“Attacking during a conversation? You’re worse than Nazis!”
-Mission failed.
-Reassessing your threat level.
“You really intend to go all the way with me? Alright then. Let’s see how far this goes!”
-We must correct you. It was not us who initially initiated hostile actions. You kidnapped our entities out of abnormal hostility and subjected them to a highly simplistic experimental environment.
-The environment was poor, and the experiment’s purpose was unclear. It was you, not us, who abducted intelligent beings for mere amusement.
“What…? Ha.”
The retort, “You were the ones who roasted and tormented humans like anchovies from the first cycle to the 89th,” was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it.
I didn’t want the anomaly in front of me to know I was a Regressor. Even the smallest hint could lead to dangerous consequences.
-It is extremely difficult to subdue you with force.
-Establishing an ongoing relationship of mutual interaction with you is preferable.
“Dream on. Who says I’ll cooperate?”
-Instead, we will disclose information you haven’t asked for. Information directly linked to your survival.
The Fairy King moved its lips slowly, perhaps excessively so.
-The being you■■■call■■■■■ is■■■■■.
A crackling noise like an old radio echoed in my head as the Fairy King spoke.
I frowned.
“…What did you just say?”
-■■■■■■■. It’s■■■, not■■■■■.
The noise grew louder, filling my head with static. The frown on my forehead deepened into a valley.
“Stop it. It’s noisy. If you’re playing a pointless prank, cut it out.”
-…….
Fairies all around, peeking from the debris, looked at each other.
-Failure. The contamination level of the target entity exceeds 99%.
-Abandoning Operation B. Redirecting anger through hostility towards a specific entity is deemed ineffective. Higher-level mental manipulation than the target entity is impossible.
-Commencing Operation C.
“……”
I began to think about how to completely eradicate the collective anomaly known as the Fairy King.
“If you keep ignoring and looking down on humans like this, I’ll—”
-We will share information. Although we did not bring the entire void into this world, it is true that we are among the highest-ranked anomalies.
-Currently, there are seven such highest-ranked anomalies.
I blinked.
Yes, this was the moment I first heard about Level 5 anomalies, classified as “Outer Gods” by the future Library Society.
“Seven highest-ranked anomalies?”
-Indeed. These anomalies exert a strong influence over humans, leading to contamination without their awareness.
-If we compare anomalies to gods, entities that worship them inevitably emerge, whether they are objects, plants, animals, or humans. This phenomenon occurs regardless of whether the entities consciously worship the anomaly.
-No belief is necessary.
-Among these worshippers, some are as powerful as apostles.
-Naturally, as the “Fairy King,” we have human awakeners who serve as our apostles.
I tilted my head.
“Well, that’s interesting information… But why are you suddenly telling me this?”
-There is a high probability that you already know our apostle.
-Cheon Yo-hwa.
I froze.
Numerous fairies, one Fairy King, looked at me from various angles like the eyes of a spider.
-Tutorial Dungeon, Baekhwa High School.
-The survivor there, Cheon Yo-hwa, is the chosen apostle of the “Fairy King.”
Footnotes:
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