Surviving Among the Anomalies - Chapter 54

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 54: Experiment

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I conducted experiments on 「Friendship」, which Homun had left behind.

“It looks like a dark red apple, and consuming it raises Physical Ability.”

The first experiment was a reconfirmation of exactly how much it increased Physical Ability.

‘The Physical Ability enhanced by The Girl with Her Eyes Closed has increased again.’

I called it a reconfirmation because I had already instinctively realized how much stronger I had become.

‘Is this also thanks to Truth?’

Homun’s Truth was a concept that allowed me to know things I had never experienced, and 「Friendship」 seemed to let me instinctively understand the physical enhancement it provided.

“Still, I should verify it.”

I went out to the garden and placed my hand on a landscaping boulder. When I exerted force and lifted it, the boulder embedded in the ground came out easily.

‘My strength is enough to lift ten tons or more.’

I kicked off the ground and crossed the garden. In the blink of an eye, I had reached the other end.

‘At full speed, I can run one hundred meters in the one-second range.’

I slammed my shoulder into another landscaping boulder at that speed. Normally, I should have suffered serious fractures, but it wasn’t my bones that shattered. It was the boulder.

‘My body’s durability is at the level of steel.’

Every ability had increased far beyond its previous level. I could no longer be called human.

“There’s no need to look elsewhere for a superhuman.”

Even so, I couldn’t confidently say I could deal with Anomalies that posed physical danger.

‘Their irregularities often don’t follow the laws of physics.’

They tore steel with ordinary scissors and split cars in two.

They smashed concrete with kitchen knives, cutting through the rebar inside.

They shredded people like paper with their fingernails and even tore apart tanks.

‘Those were all absurd things physically dangerous Anomalies did in the game.’

There were countless other Anomaly irregularities that violated physical laws, so even with my current Physical Ability, fighting an Anomaly head-on would be foolish.

“Even so, what is this feeling that I might be able to?”

The power flowing within me seemed to be telling me that raising my physical abilities wasn’t all it could do.

‘I can’t understand this part instinctively.’

I probably wouldn’t know until I fought an Anomaly directly, so I focused on testing 「Friendship」’s other effects.

“The duration is one hour.”

The slight weakness I felt after the effect ended quickly disappeared, so there were no major side effects.

“The required dose to activate the effect is at least twenty grams.”

Roughly one slice of apple, or one large bite, was enough to activate it.

“Even after the effect ends, a bitten 「Friendship」 can still activate the effect if eaten again.”

One fruit did not equal one use. It was determined strictly by weight.

“Even if it is expelled from the body through vomiting after consumption, the effect still lasts one hour.”

This proved that, upon initial consumption, a scientifically unexplainable substance was immediately absorbed into the body and caused the effect.

“「Human」 flashes by for a very brief moment immediately after consuming 「Friendship」.”

A scene worth roughly ten to twenty minutes played in compressed time. While watching it, no time passed in reality.

“「Friendship」 is unaffected by Weakening Potions and Enhancement Potions.”

It did not produce a Derived Anomaly or undergo any changes.

“Consuming forty grams or more, or eating an entire fruit, does not change the duration.”

Likewise, there was no meaningful difference in 「Human」’s runtime.

“Let’s try cooking it.”

Next, I prepared and consumed 「Friendship」 in various ways. I ate it as jam, snacks, fruit juice, and dried fruit, and sometimes added it to other dishes. All of them provided the effect, with no observed change to its strength or duration.

“「Friendship」 does not rot and can be stored indefinitely.”

Even after being left at room temperature for a long time, it neither grew mold nor decayed. Fermentation was impossible for the same reason, so making fruit wine failed.

“That’s all for experiments I can conduct alone.”

Since dried fruit proved the most efficient form for portability and quick consumption, I continued making it that way while beginning tests on other people.

[Recruiting participants for a bioequivalence trial. Observing bodily changes caused by genetically modified fruit.]

Bioequivalence trials were conducted at hospitals, so no one should have trusted one held elsewhere. Yet being a Fixer was such an all-purpose profession that the participants trusted it without issue.

“You’re a Fixer, so you can obviously conduct something like a bioequivalence trial.”

“Even if you weren’t, they’re paying five hundred thousand won for a single trial. Of course I’d do it.”

Maybe it was the power of money.

“You just need to eat this.”

“It’s an apple?”

“Afterward, we’ll check how you feel and whether there are any physical changes.”

I fed the participants pieces of 「Friendship」.

“Ugh!”

“Ghk!”

About half the test subjects fainted immediately after consuming it. It was the same reaction as when 「Human」 had been viewed.

“Ugh, it feels like I ate some shitty movie...”

“Ah, I had a fucking awful dream...”

Previously, fainting once had been the end of it. This time, the effect continued after they lost consciousness.

“There was this weird guy looking at an oasis in the desert? Then dancing naked in space? I had some fucked-up dream like that.”

“I had this indescribably terrifying dream. It was only a dream, but my head spun the entire time I was asleep. I thought I was going to die.”

“I once drank an entire bottle of Royal Salute without my dad knowing. This hangover is worse than that. Is it even a hangover? Anyway, it feels like my head is going to split open.”

The fainting lasted exactly one hour. They could only wake once 「Friendship」’s effect ended, and no method I tried beforehand could wake them.

“Bleurgh!”

The participants who did not faint couldn’t activate 「Friendship」’s effect either.

“Strange images keep appearing in my head...”

“Ugh, something disgusting is really violating my brain!”

“Aah! Please get out of my head!”

“No, Mr. Fixer? Why are you dancing naked in my head...?”

“Blech!”

Based on their accounts, certain scenes from the compressed 「Human」 seemed to repeat in their heads.

‘How strange. It only activated once for me.’

Did the scenes keep playing if someone couldn’t understand 「Human」’s artistic value?

‘It seems 「Human」 gained the irregularity of an Anomaly after being absorbed by one.’

In any case, the participants who had not fainted also felt unwell for this reason, and regardless of that, 「Friendship」’s physical enhancement effect did not activate either.

‘If someone can’t understand 「Human」’s artistic value, they can’t enjoy 「Friendship」’s positive effects either.’

For now, to anyone other than me, 「Friendship」 was an Anomaly that did not strengthen the body at all. It merely made 「Human」 play endlessly in their minds for an hour, or made them faint and watch it in their dreams.

“Experiment complete.”

All the experiments were finished. I watched dried apples continue to emerge from the freeze-dryer in the kitchen, then finally headed to Homun’s grave.

“One fruit a day.”

I hadn’t even watered it, yet it bore fruit so well.

I stood before Homun’s grave for a long time. I felt an unfamiliar emptiness, something different from losing a friend. After standing there for a while, I realized what it was.

‘There isn’t a single photo of Homun and me together.’

I didn’t like taking pictures. I believed it was better to immerse myself in the moment, taking it in with my eyes and engraving it on my heart rather than photographing it.

‘That wasn’t entirely true.’

When I realized I had no pictures with Homun, I understood that thought had been wrong.

“If photos can keep memories alive forever, is there anything more valuable?”

I learned a new lesson in life.

“Delivery!”

A few days later, the package I had ordered arrived. It was a Polaroid camera I had bought because I wanted to put my lesson into practice right away.

“This should do.”

While using the camera, which could take and develop photos on the spot, a thought suddenly came to me.

‘What if I want to preserve an encounter with an Anomaly in a photo?’

Perhaps the Anomaly’s irregularity might not appear in photographs.

Or it could be a ghost that couldn’t be photographed at all.

‘Shin Yeong-mun is a ghost too.’

I wanted to take a picture with Shin Yeong-mun, so I wondered whether there was a solution.

‘Let’s pour an Enhancement Potion on it.’

I dripped the Enhancement Potion, which had only a few uses remaining, onto the Polaroid camera.

“Will this work?”

With the camera in hand, I headed to a cursed spot known for frequent paranormal activity. I visited old abandoned houses and mental hospitals, but didn’t capture a single ghost photo.

‘If there had been a ghost, I would’ve seen it.’

I had only wasted time.

Then my smartphone rang.

“Yes, this is Fixer Lee Seung-hoon.”

- Ah, are you Fixer Lee Seung-hoon?

“Yes, that’s right.”

- I’m Park Yong-seo, the chief of Suwon Police Station!

The man’s urgent voice came through the speaker, asking for help.

- There’s been a mysterious disappearance we simply can’t make sense of. Please help us!

＊＊＊

[The next station is Suwon Station, Suwon Station. The doors will open on the left.]

I took the subway to Suwon.

‘It’s a nice neighborhood.’

There was no need for me to resolve an incident suspected to involve an Anomaly. The Foundation had not fully recovered, but it still existed. I could simply contact them and ask them to handle Suwon’s problem.

‘But a human shouldn’t do that.’

I already knew the Foundation was so busy that they needed any help they could get. Shouldn’t I step forward and lighten their burden, even a little?

‘Besides, it’s not a good habit to push work I can do onto someone else.’

After arriving in Suwon, I went to Suwon Police Station.

“Hello. I’m Lee Seung-hoon.”

“Ha ha, you’re here! Thank you for coming!”

After a little small talk with the police chief, we got to the point.

“You said the disappearances happened on the subway?”

“Yes, ten people have gone missing over the past month.”

Missing-person cases happened all the time across the country, but after searching for the people who disappeared in Suwon, the police chief discovered that all of them had vanished from the same place.

“They all went missing after boarding the last train from Suwon Station toward Seryu.”

“Have you not investigated other possibilities? They could have taken a vehicle and left for another area.”

“We reviewed the CCTV footage at every subway station in that direction, but none of the missing people were seen getting off.”

This wasn’t enough.

There had to be a reason the police chief had specifically called me.

From what I had heard so far, this wasn’t a mystery, only a simple series of disappearances.

“Mr. Fixer, please look at this.”

My question was answered by a single CCTV image.

“At first, we didn’t think it was a mystery either. Then we saw this and became certain.”

“This is...”

“It is the platform information display at the time each missing person boarded.”

The electronic sign, which showed when the next train would arrive and where it was headed, read as follows.