WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 447: That Woman S I
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* * *
Click.
"You son of a bitch!"
...
"What kind of bullshit is that!"
"Hoeee... Yes?"
"You son of a bitch! If you're gonna drag people here out of nowhere, the first thing out of your mouth should be an apology. Where the hell do you get off running your mouth instead!"
"No, hoeee. The thing is, this isn't something I did, I'm just one lowly handler..."
"You son of a bitch! Either way, you're saying you're the one in charge! Huh? You gonna apologize or not?"
"Buuut... The seniors told me people like this are rare these days. They said humans have gotten cunning, so provocation never works on them anymore..."
"..."
[1. An extra anyway. There's no way someone who carelessly leads with curses the moment he opens his mouth is hiding potential I don't already know about. Saving the world keeps me busy enough; no time to waste on a bit player. Leave him be.]
[2. There are no extras in this world. Who's to say he doesn't have some reason, like needing to go see his family right now? There's still much I don't know. Keep him alive.]
Click.
[1. An extra anyway. There's no way someone who carelessly leads with curses the moment he opens his mouth is hiding potential I don't already know about. Saving the world keeps me busy enough; no time to waste on a bit player. Leave him be.] ◀
Click.
"Ah. So you're here."
"You son of a bitch! Is what I say a joke to you?"
"Hoi."
...
"Done now? All right! Everyone, kindly follow my command!"
"Hieeeek! S-someone died...! Someone! Hiik, they just up and died! Hiiiik! A person, a person died...!"
Click.
[Notice of Service Termination.]
Click.
[Hello, players. This is the Admin of the Infinite Metagame.]
[We are thinking of setting out on a new journey.]
[It may take a very long time to reach our new destination, but somewhere at the end of the looping Möbius strip, we hope to meet you all again.]
[Thank you.]
[I truly want to meet you once more.]
"..."
[1. As expected. No human relationship survives once it's been tainted by the void poison of the Outer Gods. The void stains even every last corner of the human heart. Even the Saintess and Noh Do-hwa were powerless before it. Humanity amounted to no more than this.]
[2. ■■■ appears before you.]
Click.
[1. As expected. No human relationship survives once it's been tainted by the void poison of the Outer Gods. The void stains even every last corner of the human heart. Even the Saintess and Noh Do-hwa were powerless before it. Humanity amounted to no more than this.] ◀
Click.
"Wait."
...
"Hold on, Admin of the Infinite Metagame. If you have the understanding and reason to grasp human language, then don't close the server just yet, and hear my proposal."
...
"As you can see, I am not corrupted by you. The same goes for you. If we don't want to repeat an eternal stalemate, don't you think a compromise of sorts is needed here?"
[The 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame' always devotes its full effort to providing you with the best service.]
[Please leave your inquiry.]
"Let's cooperate."
...
"I don't know how many anomalies as mighty as you exist on Earth, but help me subjugate them. From your standpoint they're competitors too, aren't they?"
[The 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame' works day and night to fix the bugs that occur within the game.]
"In return, don't go trying to bewitch me either. A nonaggression pact. As long as you don't betray me, I won't harm you either."
[Awaiting response.]
"For the record, this is the first and last time I'll extend such an offer, Admin of the Infinite Metagame."
[Awaiting response.]
"Because I could just wipe out every human living on the surface and erase the very 'customers' you'd ever infect."
[Awaiting response.]
...
[Your response has been completed.]
Click.
Click.
Click.
* * *
[A new cycle has begun.]
The familiar mechanical sound.
Listening to a message that sounded like a foreigner of some other nationality forcing out each Korean syllable, the Undertaker lifted his eyelids.
A place more revolting than the Beginning Village.
The tutorial dungeon, the Busan Station concourse, came into his view.
"Wh-what? Where is this?"
"Huh? Busan Station? I was in the park just a moment ago..."
"Reverend? Reverend, where are you?"
Murmur, murmur.
People who had come to their senses in the same concourse slowly cranked up the volume of the noise.
But the Undertaker paid their racket no mind.
It was, after all, nothing but static, no help whatsoever to the 'clear.'
Within the noisy crowd, there was only one sound he listened for.
[The 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame' blesses you.]
That was the Constellation's message, audible in all the world to the Undertaker alone.
"Hmm."
The corner of the Undertaker's mouth curved in secret.
He carried on with his inner monologue, as was his habit. There was no need to show anything outwardly just to converse with his own Constellation.
'A blessing, is it. Yes, good. A blessing. I'd like a halfway useful one this time.'
The last cycle.
Working with the Infinite Metagame, the Undertaker had at last succeeded in subjugating yet another Outer God, the anomaly called the puppet master.
A formidable foe.
And from everything the Undertaker had observed so far, each time he subjugated another anomaly, the quality of the 'service' the Infinite Metagame provided got upgraded a little further.
'Now then. Tell me what blessing's been added this time.'
That was why he was quietly letting a flicker of anticipation show even now, having begun the same repeating life all over again.
[The 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame' informs you that, from now on, you may freely use the status window service from the moment the server opens.]
"Oh."
The Undertaker let out an idle whistle.
Right then, in the concourse, the Tutorial Fairy had appeared and was getting cussed out thoroughly by 'Mr. Bullshit-Cursing Man.'
Since every eye in the room was fixed on that spot, no one found the Undertaker's whistle the least bit odd.
'Not bad. The status window always used to open only after a while, which was a pain. Now I can even peek at the status windows of the guys who died off at Busan Station.'
[Announcing an additional update.]
[The status window now provides the player with more detailed information.]
[The skill tree! A detailed roadmap is given for which skills can be developed and how, covering the potential of NPCs.]
NPC.
A word that quietly made him uncomfortable no matter how often he heard it.
But the Undertaker didn't bother pointing it out.
He had realized long ago that pointing it out would never change the way the 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame' thought.
The Infinite Metagame was not human. Just because its messages were displayed in human language didn't mean he could expect any human warmth from it.
'Fine. Then let's try it out, quickly.'
Without letting any of his discomfort show, the Undertaker looked around.
'Let's see. Someone usable... Oh, dear.'
Just then, blood burst out across the concourse.
Unable to endure 'Mr. Bullshit-Cursing Man's' verbal abuse any longer, the Fairy had blown his head apart.
The usual WWE..., no. UFC, made the Undertaker snicker.
'At this rate I won't get to confirm that man's potential either. Well, he was an extra anyway, so he'd obviously have been useless.'
[The 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame' agrees with your opinion.]
'Shall I go find some decent talent.'
The Undertaker combed every inch of the tutorial dungeon, checking the stats of the NPCs.
Of course, even then, he refrained from any conduct too conspicuous, or any words and actions that might come across as cold-blooded.
Because the Undertaker was a kind person? Hardly. If it meant erasing the anomalies from this world, the Undertaker would sacrifice anything.
That list of sacrifices included, naturally, ordinary people, and awakeners too. Most of humanity would hesitate a little if asked, 'Is the Undertaker a good person?'
So the reason the Undertaker didn't show his ruthless side lay elsewhere.
'Infinite Metagame.'
[Awaiting response.]
'The Saintess of Seoul is surely spying on this area even now, isn't she?'
ID, Saintess. Sighting location, Yongsan, Seoul.
That awakener, all too familiar to the Undertaker, possessed astonishingly powerful abilities. Clairvoyance was one of them.
[Response: Affirmative.]
[The one currently codenamed 'Saintess' monitors the state of the Busan Station tutorial dungeon at an average interval of 120 seconds.]
Of course, being strong didn't mean she was safe from the void poison of the Outer Gods.
Not a true Constellation that bestowed blessings on him alone, but a false pretender to the title of Constellation.
Even so, if he didn't want to drag down the Saintess's regard for him, he still needed to hide his cold-blooded face for now.
'No different from usual... Just be quick to tell me the moment the surveillance cuts out. That's when I have to take care of Lee Baek.'
[Response: Affirmative.]
A little later.
[The 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame' informs you that, as of now, the Saintess's surveillance has lifted.]
[Time remaining: 118 seconds.]
Tap!
The Undertaker broke into his footwork without the slightest hesitation. There was no wavering in his stride.
In this period, in this hunting ground, he had of course committed to memory exactly where Lee Baek's gang was holed up.
Kwaaang!
The Undertaker entered, smashing down the door of the underground restaurant Lee Baek's crew had seized.
"Huh?"
Two awakeners standing guard were sent flying by the fragments of the blasted door. Instant death.
The crew, led by Lee Baek, was tormenting someone in the middle of the restaurant.
A glance.
The Undertaker checked quickly out of the corner of his eye and saw a green-haired woman lying facedown. Marks of kicking covered her clothes, and a sandwich was mashed flat in front of her.
Well. If she wanted to eat, they'd probably stomped the sandwich and told her to lick a shoe instead.
'Truly the sort of thing trashy extras would do.'
Monopoly of resources. Class stratification of distribution. Proof of class through violence. The same old tired repertoire.
In this world, only the Undertaker was a being free from the gravity of 'the predictable.' He was a player.
The extras all stood there with their mouths gaping, staring at the wreckage of the door the player had smashed with dumbfounded faces.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing..."
And that became his last expression.
Pow! The Undertaker swung his fist, and even from that distance, Lee Baek's head burst.
Even against a group of extras, he didn't pointlessly attack the small fry first.
If anything, precisely because it was a group of extras, hunting the leader first was all the more proper.
Behold.
"H-hiieeeek!"
"Run! A monster! It's a monster!"
With the leader gone, the rest of the pack finally grasped reality a little and went scrambling away in a stampede.
But there was nowhere to run. The Undertaker had already sealed off the restaurant's exit.
They only served to prove that the Busan Station tutorial dungeon was a time-honored hotspot for 'head explosions.'
"Whew."
The Undertaker unclenched his fist.
'Time?'
[Time remaining: 63 seconds.]
'Plenty.'
After cleanly dealing with even the last extra stuffed inside the restaurant's refrigerator, the Undertaker returned to his original spot.
"..., ..."
There was a survivor there.
The green-haired woman who had been exposed to Lee Baek's gang's violence still lay facedown in a hunched posture.
"Hmm."
He knew her name. Sim Ah-ryeon.
A passable enough healer, but her growth ceiling was too clear-cut to make her worth fielding in a party.
A third-rate awakener, in the literal sense.
She had shown her face the times he gathered awakeners from across the country to found an allied army, but as a rule, he had never met her again once the Busan Station tutorial dungeon was over.
"Hey."
The Undertaker bent down and crouched.
"Let me ask you something."
"..."
"You must have felt people dying and all kinds of chaos breaking out around you. So why are you still keeping your head down, not lifting it even once?"
"..."
Mumble, mumble.
A voice wormed its way out from between the disheveled hair and the bloodstained floor.
"Because if I, see your face. You might kill me."
"Kill? Who would?"
"You."
"..."
"I, didn't see anything."
The Undertaker's eyes widened.
[Time remaining: 40 seconds.]
His interest was piqued.
For the first time in a very long while.
"I won't kill you."
She didn't lift her head.
"I promise. On my life."
Still she didn't lift her head.
"Even if I have to sew your eyes shut and cut out your tongue, even if I take you along as a slave, I will not take your life here and now."
Only then did she lift her head.
Their eyes met.
The instant they did, gooseflesh rose on the back of the Undertaker's neck.
The pupils. They were not a human's. They were a beast's.
Pure beast's eyes were there, eyes that treated everything other than itself as 'an animal of a lower grade than itself.'
The eyebrows were anxious, the eyes frail. Lingering sentiment seemed to cling to the eyelids, and at the corner of her mouth was the heh-heh survival strategy of a timid herbivore.
But the Undertaker saw through every one of those scattered tricks of disguise and pierced straight to the woman's essence alone.
Because... he was of the same kind.
"..."
"..."
Her eyes suddenly settled into calm.
The corner of her mouth no longer wore a clumsy or loose smile. She had dropped the act, the performance that had deceived everyone but the Undertaker up until now.
[Time remaining: 20 seconds.]
The Undertaker spoke.
"There's no time."
"Why?"
"Someone is watching us."
"Yes."
"My name is the Undertaker. And you?"
"Sim Ah-ryeon."
"Your ability?"
"I can feel emotions, and I can eat them."
"And when you eat them?"
"I get stronger."
"Good."
[Time remaining: 4 seconds.]
The Undertaker reached out his hand. Sim Ah-ryeon took it. There was no catch whatsoever between his pulling her up and her rising.
"You've made me curious."
"Same here."
"Will you come with me?"
"Yes."
The Undertaker tapped the back of Sim Ah-ryeon's hand twice, tap tap. Then Sim Ah-ryeon squeezed his hand twice in return, press press.
The Undertaker marveled inwardly.
'Her judgment is astonishingly fast.'
The Undertaker had just said someone was watching them.
If the Undertaker conveyed a message through 'hand gestures' rather than 'words,' she could realize it was a means of evading the surveillance.
But the Undertaker hadn't explained any of that. He had merely tapped the back of her hand.
And yet Sim Ah-ryeon caught the whole signal, that 'the surveillance had now been restored' and that 'from here on they would communicate by hand gesture.'
Within barely a second or so.
'A genius.'
Why had he gone hundreds of cycles without knowing Sim Ah-ryeon had this kind of intelligence?
'...Because she hid it.'
From him. From them. From everyone.
Sim Ah-ryeon had hidden it. She concealed it because there was no particular gain in revealing her strangeness.
So no one had recognized it.
Even now, she had simply stopped hiding because she'd sensed the Undertaker was of the same kind as her.
[Reveal the status window of the opposing NPC Sim Ah-ryeon?]
'No.'
The Undertaker answered at once.
'I'll figure it out myself.'
At that, the Constellation too fell silent.
The Undertaker looked around. Since the clothes Sim Ah-ryeon wore had been reduced to such tatters, he was looking for something to cover her with.
As it happened, a pure white doctor's coat hung over a chair. Probably an outfit one of the thugs had looted on a whim.
"Put this on for now, at least."
"Ah, yes."
The Undertaker fetched the doctor's coat and went to drape it over Sim Ah-ryeon...
And in that moment.
Without his realizing it, his hand faltered for an instant.
"...?"
The Undertaker furrowed his brow.
'What? Why did I just stumble in my own movement?'
He couldn't understand it.
The Undertaker immediately began to deduce the cause logically.
'Infinite Metagame. Could an unidentified anomaly have appeared near me just now?'
[The 'Admin of the Infinite Metagame' guarantees that no meaningful phenomenon exists in the underground restaurant right now, other than player Undertaker and NPC Sim Ah-ryeon.]
"..."
If so, it was a truly strange thing.
He found a doctor's coat and draped it over the other person. Where in such a plain act could he have felt anything chilling enough to make the Undertaker hesitate mid-motion?
Since he couldn't understand it, the words that slipped from the Undertaker's mouth could only be words he himself couldn't understand either.
"...Treasure it."
Press.
The doctor's coat was at last wrapped around Sim Ah-ryeon's shoulders. The Undertaker's hand that had brought about that result had, without his noticing, tightened with force.
"...? Um, yes...?"
Before him.
Only the green-clad woman stood there blankly, blinking and blinking, unable to grasp the meaning of that gesture.
Footnotes:
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