WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
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◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈
Chapter 57: I Know That Too
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As a human, talking to other humans had always been interesting. Human personalities varied enormously from birth and became even more distinct through the environments and experiences that shaped them, so exchanging opinions brought the intellectual pleasure of stepping into a new world.
『Foolish sentient being, you dare discuss the Buddha’s teachings with me?』
If that was true of humans, it was only natural that conversations with Anomalies, beings humans could not understand, would capture my interest.
“Yes, we should discuss them. Your actions clearly do not follow the Buddha’s teachings. If there are new teachings I do not know about, would you kindly tell me?”
『You humans are pitiful and bear original sin from birth. Therefore, it is proper that you offer yourselves up and atone before the world. Do you not know this?』
See? Wasn’t this already interesting?
“Original sin is Christian doctrine, though?”
『By being born, you cause your mother pain and commit the sin of failing in filial duty. By eating and drinking other living creatures, you commit sin. Every action you take causes sin, so you are undoubtedly beings made of sin.』
“That is the law and order of nature. Any living creature has no choice but to survive by consuming other living creatures. If you call that a sin, every living thing breathing upon this earth is a sinner.”
『Correct.』
The monk smiled.
『Everything alive is a sinner.』
“Well.”
It was an extremely interesting yet extremely narrow-minded argument.
“If all living things are sinners…”
『Atone through ascetic practice.』
When the monk struck the wooden fish, a strange sensation flowed into my mind.
‘I want to hurt myself.’
But I had no desire to do that, so I ignored it and continued discussing sin with the monk.
“If living things are sinners, aren’t you a sinner too? A sinner judging another sinner is not judgment. It is nothing more than slaughter and sophistry used to justify one’s own violence.”
『?』
“And you have been striking that wooden fish and talking about asceticism and atonement. That, too, is wrong.”
『Why do you refuse asceticism?』
“In Buddhism, the wooden fish signifies awakening. It symbolizes attaining enlightenment through constant practice. Yet you judge and punish humans through a narrow perspective. Isn’t that Delusion, one of the Three Poisons, the affliction of failing to see the world as it truly is and distorting it through foolish eyes?”
Unfortunately, the discussion could not continue.
『Enough! How dare you refuse asceticism!』
The monk rose and tried to strike me down. While sitting, they had been the size of an ordinary human, but the moment they stood, they grew several times larger.
Upward and sideways.
They were now too large to call human, but that was not a problem.
“Do you know why large animals walk on four legs? It is because quadrupedal movement is more advantageous than bipedal movement when supporting body weight.”
『Practice asceticism!』
I lightly avoided the attack, moved forward, and threw a right hook at the monk’s knee. With the sound of cartilage breaking, the monk dropped to one knee.
“As you can see, bipedal creatures have limited ways to distribute their body weight, so injuries to the lower body quickly become life-threatening.”
『Gyaaaah!』
“Perhaps there were once many large bipedal creatures. But natural selection killed them all, leaving only quadrupeds. That is why the giant bipedal robots so many men want are nothing but a dream.”
I ran up the monk’s body and drove a knee into their chin. The sound of bones breaking was more cheerful than the sound of the wooden fish.
“More importantly, you speak of original sin while claiming to follow the Buddha’s teachings, yet show no mercy. You are a fallen monk.”
『Y-you bastard! How dare you…』
The monk refused to give up and kept attacking, so I kept beating them.
“I dislike violence, but sometimes violence must be suppressed with violence.”
Their large body made them satisfying to hit.
“I want to get to the next car quickly, so please give up.”
＊＊＊
『Urgh… Stop… Please… Mercy…』
The fat monk returned to their original size. Seeing them cry and beg for mercy, my artistic spirit surged.
‘A monk who should have been more merciful than anyone was less merciful than anyone, yet begged for mercy over their own pain.’
How ironic.
“I’ll take a picture.”
I could not resist taking a photograph. In the developed picture, the bloodied monk was crying. On the back, I wrote:
[The Ignorance of Empathy]
I was going to show them the photograph, explain the art, and persuade them to show mercy from now on, but the monk was instead startled and began blurting out things I had not asked.
『Please! Please show mercy! I am not a real monk! That is why I showed no mercy! So please! Do not ask about the Buddha’s teachings, and do not hurt me anymore!』
“You are not a monk?”
Something was wrong.
“This train is a hell train. Is it not a Buddhist hell that judges those who have sinned according to the Buddha’s teachings? The standards may be strict and excessive, but for an Anomaly, that is understandable…”
『Please, please…!』
Unfortunately, when I approached, the monk foamed at the mouth and fainted.
“Wake up.”
I gave them a light jolt, but they showed no sign of waking.
“Hmm.”
It could not be helped. I would ask the judge in the next car.
『Another lustful sinner has come.』
In a hotel lobby, a naked giant ten meters tall bared his teeth at me.
“Could we please settle this normally through dialogue?”
『By raping you, I will lessen your sin.』
“As expected, it will not be easy.”
There were no victims in sight. They had probably already become fuel for the train.
“I already dealt with a giant in the previous car.”
I had wanted to settle this quickly through dialogue.
Complaining would not change reality, and time would not stop passing. I quickly destroyed the giant’s knees, then beat him thoroughly as I had the monk. The giant finally lost the will to fight and wailed for forgiveness.
『Th-theah…』
“I heard you are a judge of this train. Yet the judges here show no mercy and do not follow the Buddha’s teachings. What is going on?”
『W-we’re… monshters…』
I must have hit him in the face too much. I could not understand a word, and before he could continue, the giant fainted.
“Hmm. Monshters… monsters?”
Then it all made sense.
‘The Express Train to Hell is a train full of monsters who impersonate the Buddha and enjoy tormenting humans?’
Before leaving, I looked at the giant. Despite being unconscious or dead, his penis stood erect.
“Your height is roughly ten meters, yet your penis is around thirty centimeters.”
I calculated the ratio.
‘Ten meters is one thousand centimeters. Therefore, thirty centimeters divided by one thousand centimeters is three percent. Applied to the average adult male height of 175 centimeters, 175 times 0.03 is 5.25 centimeters.’
He was an adult male with a 5.25-centimeter penis.
‘Micropenis.’
I took a photograph that clearly showed the giant’s penis, then wrote a title on the back of the developed photograph.
[Anger at What One Does Not Have]
“Deficiency seeks excessive compensation. If the judgment here is not proper judgment, perhaps the reason the giant raped the passengers was excessive behavior to satisfy a deficiency.”
I moved to the next car. In a mountain valley with a stream, a boy saw me and suddenly vanished.
『Hello?』
“Hello?”
The boy had somehow come close and whispered to me.
『As for your friend Homun, he never thought of you as a friend.』
The boy seemed able to read people’s memories.
“Hmm.”
『Even until the moment he died, he must have resented you. He is whispering in hell right now. Ah! I can hear him! Why will you not bring me back to life?』
“I truly wanted to settle this through dialogue alone…”
『Hehe! And you know, you… Huh?』
“I am human too, so I cannot help getting angry when you do this.”
『Y-you! How did you deal with the other j-judges!』
The boy seemed to have seen my recent memories.
“You are too late.”
For the first time, I used violence not for dialogue.
Violence for violence’s sake.
[The Mouth Is the Gate of Misfortune]
I took a picture as well.
＊＊＊
『Ah! A jewel!』
In Car 2, arguably the last passenger car aside from The Judge, The Greedy One flared pig-like nostrils as it received the diamond I offered.
『A pretty jewel! The only jewel I do not have!』
The Greedy One scattered jewels and turned those who picked them up into human pigs to be raised.
Yet there was one jewel The Greedy One did not possess: diamonds.
‘In the game, offering a diamond as a bribe let me leave the train.’
Reality seemed no different. Upon receiving the diamond, The Greedy One pointed somewhere across the plains.
『Keep going that way, and you can leave the train!』
“No, I want something other than leaving.”
『What?』
“Who are you?”
The pig smiled brightly.
『We are de…』
Still smiling, the pig’s head was cut off.
“…”
The severed head and torso crumbled into dust and vanished. This proved that the judges I had faced so far had only fainted, not died.
“Why did this happen?”
Following what was carved into my instincts, I moved to the next car.
“There is only one reason.”
Unlike the cars I had passed through, this one looked like an ordinary Line 1 subway car. In its center, someone waited for me.
『…』
An old-fashioned conductor’s uniform.
A face hidden beneath a black shadow.
Everything was as described in the game.
『Did you have fun?』
There was only one difference.
The conductor did not speak politely.
『Did obtaining a little power make you happy enough to run wild like a reckless brat? Did you become drunk on your own power and think you had become something special?』
“No, I never did.”
『How arrogant. As you defeated the judges, you must have thought you could stand above the sacred laws. A mere mortal, a human beneath even an insect, imagining that you had become a god while leaping over the laws of heaven. It is so natural yet foolish that I can only nod my head and sigh.』
“I will say it again, I never did.”
『But it ends now.』
At that moment, my vision warped under an impact like being hit by a car.
『An insect remains an insect no matter how wildly it struggles. Have you ever seen a human die after being bitten by an insect?』
I wanted to say that it was possible if the insect had powerful venom, but the impacts coming from every direction shook my organs so badly that I could not open my mouth.
『That is all you are. A lowly being only slightly better than other insects, with a few more teeth, yet unable to escape the fate of being an insect.』
After fighting off unconsciousness again and again, I barely opened my eyes. My body was already thoroughly battered.
『Insect, crawl upon the ground. That is where you belong.』
My body ached. My leg bone seemed cracked, several ribs appeared broken, and above all, I could not see out of my left eye.
‘Ah.’
The conductor reflected in my right eye. Beyond the black shadow, I saw something.
‘Monsters.’
It was a place that could have been a dark plain or space itself. Fires filled with horned monsters dancing and running wild, pools of blood where they swam, and towers of skulls that reached the sky stood everywhere.
‘Danger Grade.’
Like The Girl with Her Eyes Closed, perhaps the conductor possessed the power of a Destruction Grade Anomaly rather than a Danger Grade one.
“Whew.”
With trembling hands, I reached into my inner pocket. I put my hand inside the Void Pocket crumpled within it and took out cigarettes and a lighter. I also took out my smartphone while I was at it.
“Excuse me, but may I have a smoke?”
『I expect no manners from an insect, so do as you please. I am merciful, and that cigarette will be your last.』
“You know mercy better than expected. Thank you.”
Fortunately, my bronchial tubes did not seem injured. I drew deeply on the cigarette and spoke.
“First, my name is Lee Seung-hoon. We should introduce ourselves. And…”
Perhaps because I was smoking somewhere I should not, the cigarette tasted especially good.
“I know that too. I’m like an insect.”
『You admit it?』
“Yes, I admit it.”
I had thought so for a very long time.
“All humans are like insects.”
That was what I had always believed.
“Like earthworms that crawl out desperately to breathe on rainy days, only to be stepped on and die because of bad luck.”
『If you know your place, why did you commit such acts?』
“But what can we do? Humans are only like insects. They are not insects.”
That was why I still lived even now, when the world had become the game 「Surviving Among the Anomalies」.
“Because we are not insects, we live desperately even when we do not know when we will die. Even though we might be stepped on and die from bad luck, we live every moment doing our best.”
Wriggling desperately to survive, even though I did not know when a Destruction Grade Anomaly might kill me.
“I believe that is humanity’s proper attitude toward death.”
That was my life now.
『How regrettable. Someone who thinks that way has death before him.』
“Who knows?”
And it was the same now.
“First, let us have a conversation.”
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