WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 124

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April Vengeance (12)

“Sorry.”

One apology and a little time. That was all it took to persuade the FBI agent. She dropped her hesitation at once. As if nothing had happened, she calmly gave directions and led Gyeoul to the center of the control section.

Maybe because it was crew-only space, he ran into fewer mutants than expected.

Gyeoul slid down a vertical shaft.

-I sealed the aft and forward corridors on deck 5, but this is as far as I can help.

The guidance came at the lowest possible volume, almost a whisper.

-Go out through the door toward the bow. Cross the Boulevard and you will reach the casino entrance. From there, the central stairs are the shortest way down. If that route is blocked, move toward the grand theater. Call me on the internal line before you pass the atrium, and I will open the forward corridor.

The Boulevard she mentioned was exactly what it sounded like, a broad avenue. Unlike the upper decks packed with cabins, this deck and the ones below were full of entertainment facilities and open space in every direction.

Joanna Gibson had not warned him for nothing. Open areas had few bulkheads. Even the ones that did exist could only seal the aft lounge, the forward atrium, and the grand theater. Decks 5 through 3 were all like this. If he wanted to turn back, it would be better before fully committing.

-I wish you luck.

Gyeoul opened the door and stepped out.

He was inside a circular bar. An infected bartender stood frozen, facing forward. Its back did not move, its shoulders did not rise or fall. Gyeoul realized it was in Metabolic Suppression. He did not need to kill it immediately, but there was no reason to leave it alive. Crunch. He drove his bayonet into the back of its head. The body trembled, and he quietly lowered it down.

He vaulted over a table and scanned the area. A club lit here and there by emergency lights. Under the ominous red glow, black stains were everywhere. Tick tick rrrt. Somewhere, teeth clacked.

The boulevard leading to the casino felt like the ship’s voyage log. Moving corpses and still corpses. One sweep of his eyes told him what life aboard had been like. Data collection through 「Insight」 progressed automatically. The information would surface when he needed it.

Most mutants stood like mannequins. Many of them clustered by the windows, probably because they had woken once when they heard the helicopters.

Right now there was no engine noise. The timing of shift rotation must not have lined up. It was a sudden operation, so perfect turnover discipline was unlikely. The admiral had also mentioned mounting casualties and fatigue.

For Gyeoul, that was better. Even with armor-piercing rounds from a heavy machine gun, it was hard to punch through the hull and provide fire support inside.

Quiet was better.

Some mutants were still active. Their role was obvious. Sentries, in their own way. Had they assigned shifts too? With animal-level intelligence, maybe. Even wolves divide roles strictly. Monsters born from human hosts could do the same.

‘Better to kill these here before moving on...’

One floor down, deck 4 had lifeboats loaded on both sides. It was also open to port, starboard, and bow. The best place to guide survivors.

Gyeoul’s plan was simple: silently kill the sentries, then go around and kill the ones that had not woken, one by one.

Walking among things that slept with their eyes open felt grotesque. He used frozen mutants as cover and stayed out of the moving ones’ sightlines. He kept low, then found a woman who had been eaten open. A blood-soaked dress. A pearl necklace. An elegant watch around her wrist. A glossy handbag shining under red light. In a group where things ate and were eaten, she had probably been one of the eaters.

What caught Gyeoul’s attention was not the decay. It was the smell.

Beyond rotting meat, another scent lingered. A chemical jasmine note strong enough to make him queasy. Too strong. No one used it like this. Had she been unable to wash?

Given what they used as food, they would have needed a lot of water to keep anyone alive until mealtime.

As expected, he searched the bag and found a perfume bottle.

Gyeoul kept spraying it across the carpeted floor. Then he stepped back a few paces and crouched behind the wide skirt of a female body with its head twisted back. He silently set down his backpack to shed weight. Lighter now, his body could fully unleash agility that had already surpassed human limits.

The heavily scented floor lay along the awakened ones’ route. The fact that they moved in pairs made things harder. He would have to work fast.

As expected, it worked.

Sniff, sniff.

A pair approached, noses twitching. One male, one female around Gyeoul’s age. They had not found a new host, so they were not howling yet. They drifted after the scent, then finally bent toward the floor. Hands braced on the ground, searching for the source.

Crack. Crack.

Gyeoul moved in from behind and snapped both necks in quick succession. It was strength beyond human limits. Even a short twist displaced the cervical vertebrae. Before they could collapse, he caught both by the nape. Two limp bodies hanging from his grip. As with the bartender, he laid them down gently.

The girl mutant stared at Gyeoul.

Her thin neck had twisted one and a half turns. Blood ran from torn flesh. Muddy eyes stained with revolting hunger, tongue hanging out. The weak reproductive instinct of a dying mutant. The dead girl shed tears. It was hard to call it emotion.

After lowering the corpses, Gyeoul counted what remained.

If things went well, he could clear this without wasting a single bullet.

After taking out five more sentry pairs, what followed was quiet, monotonous repetition. Even so, he hurried. The helicopter lull would not last. Agent Gibson could only stall for so long.

There was a man who looked like a monster.

“...?!”

Gyeoul jolted in shock. Sensory correction had given no warning at all. At average mutant speed, the distance was three breaths, close enough to pounce. The man crouched in a shadowed corner, chewing on his fingers, watching the repeated killings like routine labor.

Why had he not noticed him? Gyeoul was not someone who relied entirely on correction. He knew the system’s limits. When certainty took over, the system reflected that certainty back.

Could it be 「Presence Concealment」...?

Impossible. That required deep development in both survival and combat branches. Even Gyeoul now could barely consider it.

The only remaining possibility was that the man had been there from the start. If he was neither hostile nor moving, 「Survival Instinct」 and 「Combat Sense」 had no reason to detect him. Even that theory felt incomplete. Why would the mutants leave him alone?

The bearded man approached. In front of Gyeoul’s gun, aimed with fierce caution, he raised both hands with a frightened expression.

“P-please save me. I know you. H-H-Han Gyeoul, L-Lieutenant. Heh!”

Too loud.

The ones Gyeoul had not killed yet reacted. There were many. Crack, crack, craaack. Frozen joints wrenching loose.

For now, he did not seem to be a monster, so Gyeoul grabbed him by the neck and hurled him into a kiosk, a convenience-booth setup. “Waaah!” the man cried. Gyeoul leveled his gun again.

“Quiet!”

The low growled threat worked at once. The man covered his own mouth. Whimpering leaked through his fingers. Rough footsteps moved outside. There was also one moving presence behind the display shelves inside the booth. Gyeoul vaulted the shelf. He dropped in front of a newly awakened mutant and smashed its jaw upward before it could even meet his eyes.

Crack! Bone shattered under the rifle stock. It dropped. Before it hit anything, he grabbed it by the collar, yanked it down, and drove his knee in hard. Crack! Another blow to the jaw rolled its eyes back. The body went limp. He laid it down, then finished by stepping on its neck. Under the slow pressure of his combat boot, blood and flesh were crushed. Crunch, crack, crunch.

A chill ran through him and he spun around.

The man watched with tearful eyes. Starving footsteps overlapped outside, but he just stood there blankly, with no sense of danger.

“Get down!”

The man looked clueless. Again, Gyeoul had to drag him down by force. Thud. He forced him to kneel behind the counter and used the shadows to watch outside.

‘What is this guy?’

Up close, the rotten stench hit hard. The hand that had grabbed him felt slick with pus. His clothes were soaked with more than sweat, some filthy secretion. What did he look like under those clothes?

Hoo, hoo.

Every time the man exhaled, Gyeoul’s fingers tightened on reflex.

It was habit. The habit of killing mutants. The smell was too similar, and his body reacted on its own.

Even while watching outside, Gyeoul kept glancing at him. Nothing about him was normal. His hair was sparse, full of bare patches. In those bald spots, the skin looked soft and decayed. The little hair he had left was matted with grease and ooze, as if glued on.

Could he be carrying some plague?

A heavy anxiety washed over him. He had no room to acquire 「Disease Resistance」 right now. It was one of the conditions for 「Plague Immunity」, and like 「Insight」, it consumed enormous resources.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.

Rotor blades.

The sound closed in fast.

A new helicopter had arrived. It must have had a searchlight, because harsh light poured through the windows. The beam swept from bow to stern.

Gyeoul gestured for the man to stay still and pressed himself against the kiosk entrance. A broken mirror shard lay nearby, useful for peeking outside.

The mutants had already learned helicopters. They still reacted to light and noise and scattered, but they no longer rushed blindly toward the sound. They only peered through windows and watched.

Still, the attention that had been moving this way disappeared.

Wait. There should be an internal line here too. Any staff-run convenience facility would obviously have a communication line. Gyeoul intended to contact the investigator and have the helicopter pull back for a while. Once the mutants slipped back into Metabolic Suppression, he could try the same method again...

Crk. Crk. Smack smack.

Hungry sounds from behind the shelves.

What was this man eating at a time like this?

Gyeoul turned and frowned deeply.

The filthy man was biting into a dead mutant. He tore flesh apart with both hands and stuffed his mouth until both cheeks bulged. Chew chew. Crunch crunch. Meat tougher and denser than ordinary human flesh being ground apart.

The mutant Gyeoul had killed by stomping its neck had already been torn up worse than a slaughtered pig. The man stretched out one remaining attached leg and bit straight into the thigh.

“What are you eating right now?”

At the hostile question, the man’s eyes widened. He checked Gyeoul’s face, then pulled the leg he was eating with both hands. The joint snapped cleanly. Pure arm strength alone. Superhuman force.

The man who was neither human nor mutant offered Gyeoul a favor.

“Y-you want some? It’s tasty...”

What he held out ran from the wobbling knee cartilage all the way to the toes.

Gyeoul narrowed his eyes.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

#Illegal sharing

Talking about it does not help. Heh heh.

#Q&A

Q. RGZ95: @ It is just a different continent, but the mutants are so bizarre, if they land on the mainland it will be horrific.

A. Of everything mentioned so far, the most horrifying is the anthrax-resistant mutant on the China side. Anthrax is truly terrifying. If that appears, they will probably have to abandon the contaminated area.

Q. WishingForTheBest: @ Mm... I know some people dislike it, but as someone who likes the audience comments, are audience appearances too rare these days T_T? They also help ease tension, can’t you bring them back T_T.

A. They appear within 3 chapters. This really is a very divisive part. T_T

Q. PleasePickUpSoap: @ Accept my love! I reject your rejection!

A. I will accept it, so could you pick up the soap over there? :)

Q. Guaaaaak: @ With gratitude, love, respect, and childlike innocence for Jakgi-nim, I am sending 27 fresh manuscript fee coupons!

A. Yes, thank you.

Q. WelcomingSmile: @ What do you think Korea is doing right now? Considering the response ability of people at the top, it feels like they would have reacted late at the start and completely lost function as a state... Also, with that population density, even with a good response it still feels like hellgate would have opened. Explosive population packed into a small landmass.

A. Will Korea appear in this novel, or not?

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