WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 136: Above the Runner, the Flyer, and the Madman

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Tap, grrrk.

Click.

Bang!

A flash filled my vision. My ears rang.

"Ugh, what..."

Yun Geon-min, whom I'd shoved aside just before, staggered to his feet.

I hurriedly checked on Kim Hee-sook beneath me.

"Are you all right...?"

My voice sounded strangely muffled.

"Seon Yu-han, you're bleeding..."

Pale as a sheet, Kim Hee-sook stared at the right side of my face.

"Ah..."

The burning pain came a moment later.

Only then did I realize the shot had grazed my right temple and blown off my ear.

I'd tried to dodge.

My face could've been half blown away.

I immediately got to my feet and stared straight at the man standing ahead of us.

Keeping my hand flashlight deliberately hidden.

[46]

A man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, with a two-digit number written across his chest.

"Tch."

He frowned, apparently dissatisfied that nobody had died, his hand flashlight still aimed our way.

"W-who are you? Why did you suddenly attack people...?"

Yun Geon-min shouted more bravely than I expected, but his voice trailed off under Number 46's silent stare.

I watched Number 46 keep his hand flashlight trained on us instead of running away, then stepped forward.

"W-what? Where are you going? What are you doing...?"

"You two hide somewhere. If you're going to run, only step where we came from."

"What if he shoots you again...?"

"It's fine. This thing takes a while before it can be used again."

Only then did I point my hidden hand flashlight at Number 46.

"Right?"

Number 46, struck by the white beam, only furrowed his brow without answering.

If he could've attacked us again right away, he would've done so already.

I quickly scanned the area, but there was no trace of anyone else.

"We heard screaming, so we came because we thought someone was hurt. Guess nobody was hurt after all."

"No."

Number 46 finally graced us with his voice.

Unsurprisingly, it sounded remarkably like the voice that had been screaming and groaning in pain earlier.

"You. You're injured."

Number 46 gestured toward my missing ear.

"Wait..."

While Yun Geon-min slowly slipped behind a tree, Kim Hee-sook spoke with a pale face.

"Then, don't tell me... You were pretending to be hurt? Why...?"

"Why the hell do you think? To lure idiots like you over."

"So you could kill us."

When I added that correction, Number 46 looked back at me.

"Yeah."

The man answered readily.

Thinking about him screeching and groaning in pain alone for all that time just to kill someone somehow made me respect him.

I didn't dislike that kind of determination.

"What kind of psycho bastard is that...?!"

Yun Geon-min, still hidden behind the tree, couldn't help shouting.

If he had time to hide there and yell, he should've just run.

"Ha. No, you people are the ones I don't get."

Number 46 sneered so theatrically it was almost artificial.

"You heard it. This is a race. So first, you get rid of the competition. Isn't that obvious?"

...What a pointless thing to say.

He was clearly trying to stall until he could use that hand flashlight's strange killing function again.

"That's insane. Even so, people... Just so you can survive by yourself...?"

Ah.

Why did I hate those words so much?

"Ha! Bullshit... What's wrong with that? Do you even know where we are? This is a Labyrinth."

How had that man done it earlier?

Tap.

Turn off the power.

"You can do anything in a Labyrinth! If I want to live too, I can do anyth..."

Grrrk.

Turn the ring around the bulb.

"Hey. Hey! You! Don't tell me you know how to use that...!"

Click.

Then press the button at the end...

"Ah, fuck..."

Bang!

"Ghk, aaaaagh!"

A scream rang out.

"Ugh, fuck, ngh...!"

A real scream.

"Seon Yu-han..."

"What the hell..."

I walked toward Number 46, who had collapsed facedown.

His reflexes had been good enough to realize it and try to flee right away, but I wasn't going to miss from this close.

"Aaagh, m-my foot...!"

One ankle had been completely shattered, its pieces scattered messily across the ground.

"I didn't know how to use this hand flashlight before, but I just learned. Thanks to you."

"Ugh, f-fuck off...!"

Number 46 glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

He shouldn't be doing that.

This wasn't the time to have a staring contest with me.

Only one ankle was gone. He could still crawl away easily enough.

"Aaagh, you fucking... bastard...!"

No.

He needed to run.

"Ghk, cowardly..."

"...Huh?"

Was I the coward here?

Looking at Kim Hee-sook and Yun Geon-min's faces didn't give me an answer.

"Just... ugh, kill me...!"

"Ah. Do I have to kill you too? You were ready to kill and be killed, but to live like this..."

I crouched in front of the leg where his ankle had been.

"...Aren't you prepared to keep living? You said you could do anything."

Actually, I knew.

"W-what... ngh... What are you? Get away...! I said get away!"

This man acted that way because deep down, he believed he couldn't get out alive.

He was just wearing cynicism like armor, wielding mockery like a weapon, and raising exaggerated aggression like a shield.

I'd already seen enough people like him.

Ten years ago.

I hated people who threw away their lives for others, but these half-hearted cowards disgusted me.

If you wanted to live.

If you wanted to live even if you had to kill someone.

You had to be ready to live as something abnormal, physically, mentally, or socially.

"Because I want to live. Because I want to get out."

"I don't want to yield either. Not when it comes to my life."

And in this Labyrinth, I'd met at least two people who really could do anything to survive.

"Try thinking about living with the resolve to die."

As soon as I said it, I bit down on my lip so I wouldn't laugh at myself.

"Aaagh, fuck, let go, aaagh!"

"I'm stopping the bleeding."

While I gave him basic first aid with the portable first-aid kit I'd taken from the supply box, Number 46 sang curses and screams like a lullaby until he passed out.

If I had to sum up the lyrics in one sentence, it was, "You're a crazy bastard who hurts people and then patches them up."

"......"

I looked down at the unconscious man's bloodless face for a moment, then turned around.

Kim Hee-sook and Yun Geon-min were looking at me with expressions full of tangled emotions.

I recognized one of them.

Fear.

They were scared of me.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Kim Hee-sook moved her lips soundlessly for a while before finally managing to speak.

"Are you... going to take him with us...?"

I chose my words for a brief moment.

"I don't know. His leg's like that now. If he were fine, maybe."

"Uh... I guess that's true... But, Seon Yu-han, you're the one who did that to his leg...?"

"No, you mean I would've taken him if he were fine? After he did this to my ear? After he tried to kill us?"

"Yes."

This wasn't the kind of place where I had the luxury of dwelling on trivial debts and grudges.

Losing one ear wasn't enough to give me some fresh resentment, either.

"We only needed to take his weapon. I lost my temper a little, though. I did go too far."

What had really made me angry was that pathetic self-deception, claiming he'd do anything to survive in the Labyrinth.

"Then, what... What are you doing this for...?"

I watched Kim Hee-sook's confused face for a moment before speaking.

"...I don't understand. What do you mean, why am I doing this? Are you saying what I just did was wrong?"

"No, that's not what I mean, Seon Yu-han! I'm the one who doesn't understand..."

Kim Hee-sook suddenly began rambling as though she might cry.

"It was the same in the Corridor of Unforgettable Memories, and in the Artifact Management Room, and in the cafeteria... I'm really grateful that you handled everything so decisively, like a Red Thread, but honestly, it's strange how you can do that at all..."

Was this what happened when I didn't show them the Jaelae Diary?

"And earlier, when Hyeon Je-won... ended up like that, you didn't seem bothered at all. Hyeon Je-won followed your lead, even if only for a little while. Then you said you might take along someone who hurt you, and after making his leg look like that, you say you'll just leave him behind without a second thought... I don't understand any of it...! I just can't trust you, Seon Yu-han..."

It looked as though all the stress and frustration Kim Hee-sook had been bottling up since becoming trapped in the Labyrinth had finally exploded.

I silently listened to that sobbing complaint.

As long as she didn't lose her mind, lash out, and attack me, I was willing to accept it.

But in the end...

"You're scared of me. It's not that you don't trust me."

It couldn't be helped.

"Take this. It belongs to that man."

"Huh? O-okay..."

When I handed her the hand flashlight, Kim Hee-sook accepted it with trembling, uneasy hands.

"Turn off the power here, turn this ring, then press the button and it should fire. I don't know exactly how long you have to wait before using it again."

"Why are you giving this to me...?"

"Let's split up. You two and me."

"What...? Huh?"

Both Kim Hee-sook and Yun Geon-min looked at me in dazed confusion.

"If I keep both of them, you'll be even more afraid of me. Even if you have one, you'll be tense if you're with me. I don't want to move around while worrying about having my head blown off for no reason, either."

"...But."

"Still, this kind of weapon should be used on monsters. Rather than people..."

Even as I said it, the words felt strangely ridiculous and hollow.

I knew there would be a next time.

There had been too many previous times for me.

There would always be a gap between people who knew there was a next time and people who didn't, one that could never be closed.

No matter how hard I tried, my desperation couldn't compare to the desperation of those living a life they only got once. No matter how desperately I struggled, it would only be a deceptive game of make-believe.

Even if I never gave up in any loop and fought desperately to survive...

I could never truly reach that desperation.

Not in this Labyrinth.

And something like that was closer to a monster than a person.

"I'll turn around. Leave whenever you're ready."

The reason I could hand lethal weapons to people who were afraid of me and show them my back was that they posed no real threat to me.

Just as I posed no danger at all to my owners.

"I... I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."

I decided not to ask what she was sorry for.

Even if I heard the answer, I wouldn't understand.

"Hey, uh... Ah, fuck."

Behind me, I heard Yun Geon-min hesitate, then turn around after Kim Hee-sook.

Crunch, crunch...

Flap, flutter...

The two people's footsteps and the wings of two crows grew steadily quieter, but I heard neither explosions nor the Interview Administrator's voice.

Softhearted people at the most pointless times.

Just as this man said, maybe everyone was a competitor and only one winner would survive.

If they were going to leave me anyway, killing me here before they went would've been much safer.

"Ha."

After letting out a short sigh, I turned my gaze to the patient sprawled beside me.

Rustle.

Just as I slipped a hand into Number 46's pants pocket.

"Mmm..."

The unconscious man opened his eyes.

Footnotes:

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