WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 3: Blue Moon (2)

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The reason I became interested in a game called 『Surviving Among the Anomalies』 was as follows.

[This guy seriously can't communicate.]

[He's probably a total troll when he plays games too.]

[I seriously want to beat the shit out of him. He's like Teemo.]

[IAmADebater: I have never played a game. What is Teemo?]

[Quit bullshitting. Who the hell hasn't played a game?]

[Why can't you just admit you're a troll?]

Those were the reactions that came up amid a heated forum discussion.

To refute them, I found the game they were talking about and played it myself.

[You crazy support bastard, stop killing minions.]

I didn't go in blind. I studied the game thoroughly before starting, but unfortunately, it was a game built on extreme selfishness, and my allies viciously turned on me.

[In this game, you kill enemy minions or champions to earn gold, buy equipment to grow stronger, destroy the enemy towers, and ultimately destroy the Nexus.]

[So why the fuck is the support taking minions?]

[Considering our AD Carry's accuracy with non-targeted skills, our chance of winning will be much higher if I grow stronger. Therefore, please purchase buff items as soon as you earn gold. Buy plenty of wards as well.]

I explained why I had acted that way.

[You're the jungler, so why do you keep farming the lanes!]

[If I kill Mid's minions too, my growth will be at least twice as fast.]

[That's what I'm asking. Why?!]

[You've been solo-killed six times in ten minutes. There's a very high chance you'll be no help whether you're in the game or not, so it would contribute far more to victory if I took the lane experience and gold.]

Despite my polite persuasion, all I received was a message saying I had been suspended for intentional game disruption.

Online games didn't suit me. Normally, that would have been the end of it, but perhaps Korean blood ran through my veins after all. Being told I was bad at games filled me with fresh anger, and I wanted to hear that I was good at games, even if it had to be in another game.

[Online games don't suit me, so let's find a single-player game.]

That was when I discovered 『Surviving Among the Anomalies』 while searching for a game to play.

It was a game built around a very interesting concept. It was the first game I had seen that used beings reinterpreted from urban legends, ghost stories, myths, and mysteries as enemies. Only later did I learn that the concept was called Creepypasta.

I played for several years afterward and even entered the rankings. What mattered now, though, was that Blue Moon was one of the 『Anomalies』 from that game, and although I had quit half a year ago, I still remembered that information.

“Blue Moon.”

I wrote down information about Blue Moon in my notebook. Thoughts alone changed shape like oil floating on water, so I had to put them into words to solidify their form.

[Anomaly Name: Blue Moon]

[Grade: Danger Grade]

[This anomaly is visible only to its victim. It appears as a blue full moon. At first, it can be seen only at night, but as time passes, it becomes visible during the day as well. It lasts for a total of seven days. As time passes, the victim is consumed by madness and ultimately swallowed by it completely, ending in a Dead Ending where they become a mass murderer.]

Given the current situation, it was certain that I had been marked as Blue Moon's victim.

“At least, assuming I haven't gone mad.”

Still, every anomaly in Surviving Among the Anomalies had its own way of being overcome. Most anomalies could not be destroyed, so it was more accurate to say they could be avoided or temporarily neutralized. Blue Moon had such methods as well, so I wrote them down below.

[The first way to survive Blue Moon: Raise Mental Strength to 80 or higher and overcome the madness.]

I immediately scratched it out. Raising Mental Strength to 80 or higher was impossible. Under normal circumstances, Mental Strength could not be raised to 70 or higher, and increasing it further required help from a specific anomaly or a special event.

‘More importantly, high Mental Strength isn't always good.’

Once Mental Strength exceeded 60, NPCs treated you like a philosopher.

Once it exceeded 70, they treated you like a saint. Once it exceeded 80, they treated you like the pinnacle of humanity.

‘And from 90 onward...’

In any case, 80 was a level reserved for the pinnacle of humanity, not a value I could attain in reality. I was only an ordinary human. I did not possess such high Mental Strength, and even with knowledge of the game, reaching that level within five days was impossible.

Below that, I wrote the next solution.

[The second way to survive Blue Moon: Use other anomalies to escape Blue Moon.]

Anomalies were dangerous to humans. Radiation had no feelings toward humans, yet its mere existence caused death. No matter what anomalies thought of humanity, their danger did not change.

Still, many anomalies were extremely friendly to humans and safe, or were no more than useful tools.

“The problem is that those anomalies appear in random locations, so I can't obtain them even with knowledge of the game.”

I scratched that out as well. Then I wrote the next solution.

[The third way to survive and escape Blue Moon, the easiest, fastest, and currently the only method]

After making a few revisions, I wrote the answer.

[Commit suicide.]

Kill myself before the madness consumed me.

“...”

I stared at the answer, then crossed it out too. I didn't know whether Surviving Among the Anomalies had become reality, whether I had simply gone mad, or whether some phenomenon beyond my imagination had occurred. One thing, however, was certain.

“Experience is the parent of the self and nourishment that fattens the soul.”

I would never have another experience like this, and I would not let the opportunity slip away.

“What a fine chance to experience madness.”

＊＊＊

I walked through the streets beneath an umbrella as rain drizzled down. The world was the same as always, but I could feel subtle gazes directed at me.

“Mom! Is it raining right now?”

“Huh? No.”

“Then why is that man holding an umbrella?”

“That is a parasol. It's used to block sunlight.”

I understood the mother's desire to kindly answer the child, but this was not a parasol. It was an ordinary umbrella.

‘The rain's really coming down.’

In the rain that only I could see and feel, I cautiously looked up at the sky. Blue Moon, larger than before, hung overhead and looked down at me.

Only a day had passed, yet I could see Blue Moon even though it wasn't night.

‘What does this rain mean?’

When someone became Blue Moon's victim, the game screen changed as time passed. Sometimes rivers of blood appeared, sometimes everyone's faces became identical, and sometimes frogs fell like rain. All of it expressed madness.

‘The players said it was likely a manifestation of one's inner madness.’

People were all different, so madness must be different too. It was natural that it changed each time, and I could understand my current situation as well.

‘But is this really all my madness amounts to?’

My boring madness amounted to nothing more than a blue moon hanging in the daytime sky and rain falling.

“Hmm.”

And madness that made me periodically step on earthworms.

“Sorry.”

Numerous crushed earthworms twisted as if dancing. It was already the sixth time today. I had walked carefully, but whenever I came to my senses, I had already stepped on one.

I wandered around all day, but nothing else changed. It was a peaceful town, just as it had always been.

‘Only four days of this peace remain.’

Four days from now, a mass murderer would appear and shatter this peace. That murderer would be me.

‘What will the news say?’

Would headlines blare about the Bucheon Stabbing Incident?

The suspect: an unemployed 25-year-old man.

A high school dropout and video game addict, obsessively immersed in games, mistakes reality for a game and commits mass murder!

‘Surviving Among the Anomalies is a game that no longer exists in this world, so I won't be labeled a game addict.’

If they investigated me further, perhaps an article like this would appear.

The process by which a knowledge thief, whose hobby was sneaking into prestigious universities to audit classes, became a murderer.

An unemployed man who lived off his parents' insurance money goes on a stabbing spree after his funds run dry, enraged by financial hardship.

“Let's head in.”

On the way home, I stepped on ten more earthworms.

＊＊＊

Three days remained until I became a mass murderer. By then, earthworms had completely taken over the streets.

“...”

Even if I wanted to avoid them, I couldn't, so I walked while stepping on them. Blue Moon, floating in the sky, was larger than it had been yesterday. It looked as though it might crash into Earth at any moment.

“Hello?”

“Hello?”

The people on the street were no longer human. They still had human appearances, but earthworms seemed to writhe beneath their skin, continually spilling from their eyes, noses, and mouths.

“Hello?”

“Hello?”

Was I the only one perceiving them this way? Did they only look as if earthworms writhed beneath their skin, and did I alone see and hear them repeat the same words like parrots? Were they actually ordinary people?

‘Then does Blue Moon's madness manipulate the five senses to create delusions?’

I didn't know. If that was the case, it would be better to call it hallucination rather than madness.

“Hello?”

“A pack of cigarettes, please.”

“Hello?”

They couldn't communicate through words, but their actions were normal. They seemed to hear what I said just fine, so I was able to buy things.

“Three more packs, please.”

It might not work tomorrow, so I should buy them in advance.

＊＊＊

Two days remained until I became a mass murderer.

The world was no longer the world I knew.

“It's blue.”

Blue Moon occupied half the sky, shining in place of the sun and dyeing the entire world blue. Strange plants grew throughout that blue world, so bizarre that I was afraid to walk.

“They look like earthworms.”

After observing the plants from various angles, I opened my umbrella and went out into the street. The falling rain was stickier and heavier than before, but there was no wind, so one umbrella was enough to block it.

“Hellohellohellohello.”

“Hellohellohello.”

The people had become monsters, as if they were half-human, half-earthworm. It was quite amusing to see them shamelessly walk the streets and greet each other.

『Hello?』

『Hello!』

I should look around a little more.

I took a bus around the city. Earthworm people packed the entire city, and earthworm-like plants covered the buildings.

“Hello?”

Even so, I didn't feel much that day either.

＊＊＊

The day I was to become a mass murderer.

At last, I could have an experience that normal means would never allow.

“How fascinating.”

Blue Moon filled the sky, shining an even deeper blue and filling the world with blue. Strangely, though, my brain recognized that blue as both blue and red at once.

I was experiencing something like quantum superposition, recognizing the blue I saw with my eyes as both blue and red at the same time.

“Is this Mental Contamination?”

I went outside with my umbrella. Earthworms had risen to my ankles, and I stepped through them as I walked. The rain was so heavy that the umbrella was no longer useful.

‘I'll just get soaked.’

I threw the umbrella into a trash can and continued on. The people I encountered looked like enormous earthworms that crawled while standing perfectly upright.

‘My God.’

Could “standing perfectly upright” and “crawling” coexist?

Yet there was no other way to describe them, and at last, the moment I had been waiting for arrived.

“It's bad today.”

In truth, my emotions had begun changing from the moment Blue Moon started appearing during the day.

I felt like I had become an earthworm hater. Seeing earthworms disgusted me and made me want to tear them apart and kill them.

It began as nothing more than a small irritation, but it grew with time. Now, the desire to rip earthworms to shreds and swallow them boiled inside me.

As if earthworms were benefactors beyond compare.

As if earthworms were insects that should never exist in this world.

“So that's how it is.”

And that was all.

“How underwhelming.”

Blue Moon's madness was not that impressive.

“Should I have a smoke before going in?”

Even if the world looked like this, it was probably only like this to me, so I couldn't smoke anywhere I pleased. As I was about to return to my studio apartment, the heavens resounded.

『You, human, insignificant mortal, insect of the earth, weed of eternity, embodiment of unfulfillable greed.』

Blue Moon was watching me.

Blue Moon was asking me.

Blue Moon, covered in tens, hundreds of millions, hundreds of billions, perhaps countless eyes and mouths.

『What are you?』

What a profound question. It was philosophical, a question whose answer could differ depending on how one defined humanity, whether one believed in the existence of a soul, and whether one used the self as the standard.

“Hello?”

There was only one thing I could say.

“My name is Lee Seung-hoon.”

Footnotes:

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