Surviving Among the Anomalies - Chapter 42

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 42: Exit

──────

『The medical knowledge contained in the liquid inside this small bottle...』

The Director, the Anomaly of Moscow University Hospital, smiled happily as he rubbed his cheek against 「Peace to the Big Toe」. Watching a head at least four times larger than mine rub against a tiny bottle of nail polish was rather ridiculous.

“You seem to respect Dr. Janus a great deal.”

『It goes beyond respect! It is worship! Every medical practitioner follows in Dr. Janus’s footsteps, and I am no exception! It is every doctor’s dream to see anything connected to Dr. Janus in their lifetime, yet I never imagined I would see medicine they created!』

“I only met Dr. Janus as their patient, so I don’t know much about their achievements. Could you tell me about them?”

『Of course!』

The Director went on about Dr. Janus as if talking about a celebrity he fanatically adored.

『Dr. Janus is the god of medicine in this age! Countless groundbreaking, creative medical techniques and medicines capable of changing the paradigm of the times were born from their hands!』

Dr. Janus sounded like a truly incredible Anomaly.

『Even a dead human can be revived if Dr. Janus is there! Even if nothing but bones remain!』

『Disease means nothing to Dr. Janus! They can cure every illness!』

『If Dr. Janus operates on you, you can have any body you want! Appearance, gender, functions, abilities, anything you desire!』

『The medicines Dr. Janus creates transcend all medical knowledge!』

In short, Dr. Janus was a god of medicine, a transcendent Anomaly who created countless medicines.

‘If they can make medicine treated as an Anomaly, it makes sense that they would surpass other Anomalies.’

I spoke to the Director, who was still beside himself.

“You can have it if you want.”

『What!? Really!?』

“I have another bottle at home.”

『Oh! Thank you!』

“But I have one request.”

『Anything!』

It was fortunate that this was an Anomaly I could reason with.

“Please tell me how to leave this space.”

＊＊＊

『Then I will await your admission next time.』

I left Moscow University Hospital after the Director bid me farewell. Outside, only the streetlights still shone mournfully, but thanks to the map the Director had given me, this place was no longer unknown territory.

[Leaving this place is not difficult. You only need to enter a particular location and overcome the trial there.]

[Then why have you not left until now?]

[The hospital is here. How could I, its Director, leave? I will draw you a map.]

‘He’s quite good at drawing. He could be an artist.’

The Director’s map was detailed enough for me to move without hesitation. At this rate, I could reach the exit within an hour, face some unknown trial, and escape this place.

‘Don’t let your guard down.’

I kept the Director’s warning in mind.

[Be careful. Outside the hospital, there are many strange creatures who are dull, ignorant, and live on instinct. Those morons cannot even hold a conversation and are extremely violent, so I worry that you may be harmed, patient.]

If the Director spoke of them that way, they were likely Anomalies incapable of conversation, driven only by violence and murderous intent.

‘There’s no solving problems with creatures like that through conversation, so I need to avoid being found.’

I hid myself in the darkness as much as possible. I even took off my shoes so I wouldn’t make any noise, avoided open areas, climbed over walls, and wound through alleys.

‘An hour in a straight line. Indefinitely if I’m careful.’

Slow was fine, as long as they didn’t find me.

“Damn.”

Still, if avoiding Anomalies were as easy as wanting to avoid them, they wouldn’t be Anomalies.

『Pant, pant.』

I locked eyes with a dog staring at me while drooling heavily. I liked most animals, so I wanted to pet its head, but I couldn’t do that with this dog.

『Pant, pant, pant!』

It was larger than a two-story building.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure whether I should call it a dog.

『Food.』

Its face was human.

“Hello?”

Since it had a human face, I greeted it in case it could speak.

『Munch munch.』

It opened its mouth.

『Something tasty!』

To eat me.

＊＊＊

『Foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfood!』

It howled for food and moved its mouth like mad. The instant it found me, I praised myself for putting my shoes back on beforehand.

‘It’s really fast.’

If this had been flat ground, and if its massive size hadn’t made it difficult to move between buildings, it would’ve caught me long ago.

‘Even this is only a matter of time.’

It chased me while chewing through buildings.

『Food! Prey!』

How was that even possible? Its mouth expanded in an instant and swallowed an entire building whole. Even as it chewed, its face returned to normal, and it could still speak.

‘An Anomaly really is an Anomaly. It’s something human common sense and knowledge cannot understand.’

So, what now?

It was time to choose.

‘If I keep getting chased and encounter another Anomaly, I’ll obviously be chased by both. Therefore, before it’s too late, I need to use the Golden Ticket or find a way to counter the Human-Faced Dog.’

I wanted to save the Golden Ticket for the final trial, since I didn’t know what it would be.

‘But it’ll be hard to figure out its weakness while being chased like this.’

It was an Anomaly I didn’t remember. Could I discover its weakness before it caught me, with no clues at all?

‘It would be nice if there was something that worked on that Anomaly, like how the Director liked Dr. Janus’s medicine.’

I touched the tumbler in my pocket that automatically replenished and maintained carbonation. It would work if the Human-Faced Dog hated carbonation, but what were the odds of getting that lucky?

‘Then all that remains is...’

The Golden Ticket.

No, there was one more thing.

“...This is not an Anomaly.”

Using art as a weapon was sad for me as its creator, but the situation was urgent. It couldn’t be helped.

I came to an abrupt stop and twisted around. The Human-Faced Dog, which had been lunging at me from behind, bit the spot where I had been standing.

‘Now.’

I kicked off the wall and leaped onto the Human-Faced Dog’s back, then took the Bead from my pocket.

‘My work.’

My artwork, created by borrowing the power of The Troupe in the Dream.

‘Its title is 「Human」.’

I activated the artwork I had brought along with the other Anomalies on the Human-Faced Dog.

『...Pant?』

The Bead’s effect was to make someone view a compressed version of my work for one minute.

Yet, rendering my previous experiments meaningless, it quickly shook its head and came to its senses again.

『Something weird!』

Then it found me again and resumed chasing me.

‘Can powerful Anomalies escape it quickly?’

I thought back to when I had used it on other Anomalies.

‘Blue Moon and the Mysterious Merchant both came to their senses after only a few seconds. But they acted as if they had fully appreciated my work.’

I see. Powerful Anomalies appreciated the work faster.

‘It has slowed down compared to before.’

I took the risk again and again, making it appreciate 「Human」.

『Ugh...』

It took longer to wake up than before, and its speed had become much slower.

‘At this rate, I can shake it off.’

Yet I didn’t want to shake it off.

“How does my work make you feel?”

『Huh?』

“I mean what you just saw.”

『Food!』

“Fine, I’ll show you once more.”

Showing 「Human」 to the slowed creature again was easy.

『Ughhh...』

Its body trembled violently. Then, after looking at me, it suddenly retched and vomited up a building.

『I feel sick... Rotten food... I won’t eat it...』

The Human-Faced Dog disappeared from sight with feeble steps.

“Hmm.”

I had survived, but as an artist, my heart was wounded.

“Was it that bad?”

Then I belatedly remembered that my opponent was an Anomaly.

“Anomalies can’t understand art.”

The Troupe in the Dream was the same, wasn’t it?

＊＊＊

『Hehehehe!』

As I continued on my way, perhaps because the commotion with the Human-Faced Dog had exposed my location, other Anomalies began finding me one by one.

“Do you understand art, by any chance?”

I spoke to a suspicious figure wearing a plague doctor mask. It only gave a grotesque laugh and did not answer, so I concluded it was an Anomaly I couldn’t reason with and showed it 「Human」.

『...Disappear from before me at once.』

“You could speak?”

『Disappear.』

“Your thoughts on my work...”

『Disappear.』

The next one was a massive lump flying through the sky, with hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand, eyes.

『Observe everything, see, watch, observe.』

“Would you like to see this as well?”

I showed it 「Human」 too.

『...』

“Hmm, should I show you one more time?”

It said nothing after viewing it, so I showed it again. Then its countless eyes suddenly began shedding tears all at once.

『I will not observe any more today.』

Its staggering back as it flew away looked somehow pitiful.

『Hiss! Hiss!』

The next Anomaly walked on all fours and had a long snout. Once again, I couldn’t communicate with it, so I showed it 「Human」.

『...』

It silently glared at me, then slowly backed away with heightened wariness, put distance between us, and fled.

“What a shame.”

Art sometimes transcended species. Even on YouTube, there were plenty of videos of animals like cows, sheep, dogs, and cats quietly appreciating classical music or gathering to listen.

‘I had hoped a little, too.’

I had turned it into a kind of weapon because of those who didn’t understand art, but I still held out a small hope that there might be an Anomaly that would appreciate my art.

“My expectations were too high.”

With my artistic spirit in tatters, I finally reached my destination.

‘This is the place.’

I opened an ordinary door and entered the building. It was bright and spacious, and there was a full-length mirror inside.

‘A suspicious mirror.’

A single full-length mirror stood alone in the middle of a sealed room the size of a high school sports field. It was suspicious in every way, but it might be the trial, so I walked up to it and looked inside.

“Hello?”

I greeted the mirror.

『Hello?』

The me inside the mirror answered.

“Ah, could this be...”

『There are two of me?』

“I want to know whether you’re really me.”

『I was thinking the same thing.』

The me in the mirror and I simultaneously took out 「Human」 and activated it.

“Truly moving.”

『It is a perfect work expressing humanity.』

This one really was me.

“I never thought the day would come when I’d talk to myself.”

『Right.』

It was not merely an imitation of my appearance, but myself in every way, even inside.

＊＊＊

“Are they still not ready!?”

Seong Yu-ra pressed the agents. More than an hour had already passed, yet the team meant to rescue Lee Seung-hoon had not even departed.

“I’m sorry! We have not yet prepared a way to neutralize the Anomaly at the exit!”

“Vantablack will work!”

“The factory that produced Vantablack has not yet been restored, so we urgently dispatched agents!”

“How much longer will it take!?”

“Probably two hours...”

She swallowed her anger at those words.

‘It can’t be helped if it’s the Mirror of Murderous Intent.’

The Anomaly’s name was Mirror of Murderous Intent.

It was an Anomaly that copied whatever was reflected in it into the dimension beyond the mirror.

‘That alone would be fortunate, but the real problem is that the copy it creates is not a simple duplicate.’

The being inside the mirror perfectly matched the original.

Its body, thoughts, ideology, and memories, all of it.

‘But the duplicate quickly realizes that it is a duplicate.’

From that moment, the duplicate instinctively expressed intense murderous intent toward the original, hated them, and tried to kill them by any means possible.

‘The problem is that the duplicate’s means of attack is self-harm.’

If the duplicate harmed itself, the original would be harmed as well. Conversely, the original could not attack the duplicate.

‘The mirror cannot be broken, and from that moment on, the duplicate will not disappear even if the original moves away from the mirror.’

In the end, it was a dangerous Anomaly made of murderous intent, true to its name, leaving only an ending where the original and duplicate died together.

‘The only way to counter it is to coat the mirror with Vantablack.’

Covering it with cloth did nothing, since the cloth vanished in the blink of an eye. The same happened even if it was painted. Only Vantablack vanished, and even that took around three minutes.

The mirror coated in Vantablack would then develop an abnormality in the dimension beyond it, connect to this dimension, and become a passage through which one could escape. It was the final stronghold of the defense system’s dimension and the only exit.

“Please, stay hidden.”

No matter how extraordinary his Mental Strength was, the duplicate beyond the mirror was still a duplicate.

‘If he enters there, he’ll definitely die.’

＊＊＊

『Ah!』

“What is it?”

『I’m the duplicate. I just instinctively realized it.』

“Really? I was wondering whether I might be the duplicate.”

『No, no. I’m the duplicate. I have an extremely intense murderous urge boiling inside me. I really want to kill you, the original.』

“How?”

『It feels like there’s a manual in my head. I can feel that I just need to harm myself.』

“Will you harm yourself?”