WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
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◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈
Chapter 37: The Second Prophecy
──────
[First news. These days, with LCD monitors and digital TVs becoming the norm, many people do not know how to care for CRT televisions. We would therefore like to teach you how to care for a CRT television ourselves. Intern on location, Intern?]
The screen changed.
The space beyond it was my living room. A woman in a suit stood before the Dial TV in a composed posture, looking toward the screen.
[Yes, this is Intern, Intern, reporting from the scene!]
Her face, however, was a large notebook.
[Today, we will learn how to care for a CRT television. First, CRT televisions can deteriorate if exposed to direct sunlight, so you must never let that happen!]
With a strained groan, Intern moved the TV farther from the window. She then took out a dry cloth and cleaner and wiped the screen.
[Also, CRT televisions build up static electricity easily, so you must regularly wipe away the dust!]
Next, she took out WD-40 and applied it to the gaps in the TV and around the dial, then diligently cleaned them with a cloth and cotton swabs.
[Lastly, wipe the buttons and various gaps with metal lubricant, and you're done! See? Easy, isn't it?]
A snort of laughter escaped me.
“Yes, it is. Once the news is over, I'll take care of it right away.”
An emoticon appeared on Intern's face.
[＼(^o^)／]
The screen changed back to the newsroom.
[Second news. Nangman & Romang, a Korean-Japanese joint venture, plans to release its first game, 「Academy City of Romance」, on the twenty-eighth of this month. Collectible mobile games where beautiful girls wield swords and fight the evil in the world are already an overcrowded market, but Academy City of Romance will later rank first in revenue across Korea, China, and Japan for forty-eight consecutive months thanks to its deep story, distinctive characters, and gorgeous illustrations.]
The moment I heard that, I opened my stock app and searched for Nangman & Romang.
‘Current share price: 880 won. A penny stock.’
I used all the money in my stock account to buy shares, then focused on the screen again.
[Third news. A naturalist living on Songnisan has supposedly attained enlightenment and gained power like that of a martial artist from a wuxia novel. What an astonishing story. Let us see for ourselves. Reporter on location, Reporter?]
In the mountains, presumably Songnisan, a man with a microphone for a head interviewed an elderly man.
[Yes, this is Reporter, Reporter, dispatched to Songnisan. Mr. Kim Go-deuk has lived as a naturalist on Songnisan for fifty years. It is said that he attained enlightenment while living alongside nature and personally created martial arts. Mr. Kim Go-deuk?]
[Yes, I am Kim Go-deuk. Heh heh.]
[Did you really create martial arts? Can such a thing actually exist?]
[It exists. What is the energy of nature? It is the material manifestation of nature's energy, the harmony of yin and yang, and the principles of the Five Elements. For twenty years, I personally grasped those secrets with my body, and I have now reached a state where I can handle them freely. That is the beginning of Internal Energy and the secret of martial arts.]
[Wow, could you give us a demonstration?]
[Watch closely.]
The old man, whose white beard hung long like that of an immortal, assumed a stance, stretched out his right hand, and shouted.
[Heavenly Demon Void Art: Earth!]
A tree more than ten meters away shook violently. A palm print had been stamped into it.
[Blood Flower Flame Cannon: Metal!]
A boulder split in half beneath the old man's punch.
[Heaven-Rending Fire Dragon: Water!]
With a movement of his feet, he raced through the forest at tremendous speed, as though riding the wind.
[Ascending Vitality Defies Heaven: Wood!]
The old man sat cross-legged and inhaled. His complexion immediately improved.
[Radiant Shadow Raging Current: Fire! That is a secret life-saving ultimate technique, so I will not reveal it.]
[We've seen enough. Martial arts really can exist. Let us all strive to learn martial arts as well!]
The screen changed back to the newsroom.
[How fascinating. Still, it is disappointing that he was not as strong as expected.]
A question suddenly came to mind. Was that old man an ordinary person who had gained such power because of the Dial TV? Had it turned him into an Anomaly, only to be disappointed by how little power he possessed?
‘Or was he a human who became an Anomaly after gaining superhuman power, then hid away until the Dial TV found him?’
Surviving Among the Anomalies included people who had been born human but became Anomalies after gaining mysterious powers. Either way, the old man was clearly something mysterious.
[Final news. Global warming caused by industrialization, microplastics, environmental pollution, environmental destruction caused by indiscriminate development, and ecosystem collapse caused by a chain of extinctions. All of these are major problems for Earth.]
What news was it about to deliver after saying that? Like the Announcer, I pricked up my ears and focused on the news.
[But you no longer need to worry. Earth will no longer need to worry about global warming, microplastics, environmental pollution, or ecosystem collapse caused by environmental destruction and a chain of extinctions!]
The screen changed.
[Because all those problems will be solved exactly thirty-one days from now.]
The new screen displayed nature in all its glory. Untouched wilderness, without a single building or any trace of humanity, was truly beautiful.
[Can you believe this was once Seoul, the most prosperous city in Korea?]
...Seoul? That place?
[It is hard to believe that the reason the world became like this began at an apartment bazaar in Chungju thirty days from now.]
The Announcer bowed politely.
[This has been Announcer, Announcer of Dial TV for You.]
The TV switched off, but I sat on the sofa and thought for a long while.
-Quack!
After organizing my thoughts, I went outside and bought WD-40, cleaner, a high-quality cloth, and cotton swabs.
‘This should do.’
I adjusted the Dial TV's position, thoroughly cleaned its screen, sprayed WD-40 thoroughly, and wiped it away.
‘Humanity's extinction? But something about it was too strange.’
As I cleaned, I analyzed the scene I had seen earlier.
‘It wouldn't even take a hundred years for concrete buildings to disappear completely. Fine cracks and weakened rebar would inevitably cause them to collapse.’
Even then, rubble would remain. Yet the wilderness I had seen contained not even rubble, much less any trace that humanity had ever existed.
‘Did it show me the distant future? No, the Dial TV clearly said the problems would be solved in thirty-one days.’
It had also said that the beginning would be an apartment bazaar in Chungju thirty days from now.
“That means humanity will perish in a single day, without leaving even a trace that humanity ever existed.”
I would be busy from tomorrow onward.
＊＊＊
[Yes, we have arrived at Songnisan. Passengers, please disembark once the vehicle has come to a complete stop.]
Humanity would perish in thirty-one days, but since there was nothing to do before then, I leisurely went about my daily life.
‘Let's meet the martial artist of Songnisan.’
I was curious on an intellectual level, and if I could learn martial arts, there was no harm in doing so.
Beep!
Just as I was about to enter Songnisan, a harsh whistle made me stop.
“Grandpa! Stop right there!”
I did not even need to enter the mountain to meet the martial artist, Kim Go-deuk.
“Impudent fool! The government and the martial world must not interfere with one another! How dare you break that unwritten rule!”
“No, Grandpa! What are you talking about? There's no such law!”
The old man shook off the police at incredible speed, as though running through the sky.
‘He's incredibly fast.’
Even with the Physical Ability and heightened senses I had gained from The Girl with Her Eyes Closed, I did not think I could catch him.
“Hmm?”
At that moment, our eyes met.
“Tsk. Your body is passable, but your mind is unsound. Martial arts can only be learned after the mind, energy, and body become one.”
Clicking his tongue and shaking his head as though he found it regrettable, the old man quickly disappeared.
“Huff, huff, that old bastard is fucking fast!”
The police officers chasing him eventually gave up and stopped.
“What happened?”
“Huff, that old man just now, huff, broke a natural monument and ran away!”
A natural monument on Songnisan.
‘Jeongipumsong?’
I went to see the six-hundred-year-old pine tree. Korea's Natural Monument No. 103 lay on the ground, its trunk snapped in half.
‘Hmm.’
A closer look at the break revealed a palm print. It was undoubtedly the martial art I had seen in the news.
“Wow, it actually broke.”
“Why did it break?”
“You don't know? Some old man was standing in front of it earlier, saying it was the perfect tree to practice martial arts on. Then it suddenly snapped.”
“Did he really use martial arts?”
“You think that's real? The inside was probably rotten. It just happened to break at the right time.”
“It doesn't look rotten, though.”
I had wanted to try learning martial arts. What a shame.
‘Next, I should go to Chungju.’
I left home for a while and lived in a motel in Chungju. While staying there, I visited every apartment complex and found out which ones were holding bazaars.
‘The one holding a bazaar thirty days after the day I saw the prophecy.’
Only one place met the conditions.
‘Samyeon Apartments.’
＊＊＊
‘Today's the day.’
After quietly washing up, I left the motel. There was plenty of time, so I did not need to keep staying at a motel in Chungju, but I had to consider that the Dial TV's prophecies could change.
‘I've visited every day in case anything happened, but it had not opened as of yesterday.’
Today was the thirtieth day the Dial TV had mentioned.
I left the motel and headed for Samyeon Apartments.
[Samyeon Apartments Bazaar.]
It was still early, so the bazaar had not begun yet. Many residents participating in it moved busily, putting out items to sell one by one as the event gradually took shape.
‘What could happen here that would make humanity disappear without a trace?’
It was no mere disappearance. Humanity's very existence seemed to have been erased, while nature had flourished so wildly that Seoul resembled the Amazon within a single day.
‘It must be a powerful Anomaly. But I'm not afraid. It will be an Anomaly from Surviving Among the Anomalies, after all.’
「SCP」, the progenitor of creepypasta, had countless beings humanity could never resist. Surreal beings that would kill you without fail if you encountered them, or that humans could not comprehend, amplified people's fear.
‘But Surviving Among the Anomalies is a game.’
A survival game where the goal was to last as long as possible.
In a game where survival was the objective, beings that could not be dealt with and would kill you without fail if encountered would only frustrate players. That was why every Anomaly had at least one way to survive it.
‘Unless it was an event-type Anomaly like the Munchkin Mary Sue Constellation, there was at least one way to survive it.’
A way to run from the Anomaly.
A way to drive the Anomaly away.
A way to seal the Anomaly.
A way to persuade the Anomaly.
There had always been one or more methods.
‘What kind of Anomaly is here?’
After wandering around for a while, I finally found it.
“Seong-yeol, keep an eye on things. Mom's just going to get some kimbap.”
“...”
“Seong-yeol!”
“Ah! Got it!”
A young man looked annoyed before an assortment of junk.
“Ah, this is fucking annoying.”
One grotesque hand sat among that junk.
‘So this is where it was.’
It was not a human hand. It was a furry animal's hand, longer than a human's. It had only a middle finger, and there was not even a trace of the other fingers, as though they had never existed rather than having been folded away.
‘The One Remaining Monkey’s Paw.’
An item called a cheat in the game, capable of honestly and perfectly granting any wish.
‘It only grants one wish, but unlike the usual monkey's paw, it is an object-type Anomaly that never twists wishes and grants them exactly as requested.’
There were two kinds of wishes it would not grant.
‘Wishes asking for more wishes, and wishes asking to eliminate or permanently exclude an Anomaly.’
In return, players could seal certain Anomalies for years and play the game more comfortably, or raise a character's stats to the level of an Anomaly and exponentially increase their odds of surviving monster-type Anomalies.
‘That thing causes humanity's extinction?’
A question arose. Who had made what wish that resulted in humanity's extinction?
‘It looks like that man is going to use it.’
The moment I looked at the young man tending the stall, I was able to activate my right eye.
‘...So this is why the future turned out that way.’
Although the young man was steeped in a sense of superiority, he had made a wish to The One Remaining Monkey’s Paw for the sake of the world.
‘A monkey's paw is still a monkey's paw.’
The result simply had not been good.
Footnotes:
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