WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 187: Under Black Water (5)

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Step, step. Hard combat boots, cold emotion, clear footfalls. Gyeoul walked on, searching for the remaining cameras. His slow pace was a careful sweep, meant to keep him from missing even one. If he was going to try anything, Chadwick at least could not be allowed to watch. Whether it succeeded or failed would come after that.

The empty experiment zone had many dark corners, and each time gunfire rang out, they flashed faintly. The mutants’ discord grew louder with every shot. A nearby metallic sound mixed in. Clack. The empty chamber showed between the locked-back slide of his pistol. Gyeoul pressed the magazine release and snapped his hand hard. The magazine flew away as if flung in irritation. Before it even hit the floor, he had reloaded and finished aiming in one continuous motion, but...

“Please think about it one more time.”

The hand on his arm threw off his aim. The trigger stopped just short of firing.

“I understand why you’re doing this, Gyeoul. It’s not as if I want to die either.”

The FBI agent spoke with a pained expression. She had followed quietly at a distance, and it was clear she had hesitated several times before stepping in. Squeeze. Her gripping hand went white.

“But your life isn’t yours alone. The citizens will still have at least some breathing room even if Gyeoul disappears. But what about the people who aren’t citizens? For a while, this country will become as harsh as it was when the plague first began. Who will protect the refugees?”

The boy blinked in silence, then corrected his aim by sheer strength. Bang! The shattered target sprayed into tiny pieces, and at that moment, Gyeoul’s left hand seized Joanna by the collar. The agent was dragged in helplessly by strength greater than a Beta Ghoul’s. From a handspan away, eyes wide with surprise looked at Gyeoul.

A silent moment passed.

Slowly, Joanna’s gaze lowered. At the same time, the strength drained from Gyeoul’s hand. The end of a wordless conversation. Joanna slowly let out the breath she had been holding. Then she quietly turned her head. Gyeoul straightened her rumpled clothes. It felt far away. How long had it been since he had acted on emotion alone?

“I’m sorry for getting angry.”

“...”

“I didn’t want to do that. Anne, you’re a kind person, and I know you’re saying this with good intentions even now.”

“Gyeoul...”

“But I can’t. I told you, didn’t I? Don’t ask me to do the impossible... Should I say it again? This is as far as I go. I’ve been helping other people all this time because I’m Han Gyeoul, the person who can’t kill Anne. If I murder Anne with my own hands and walk out of here, I won’t be able to help people the way I did before. My heart won’t be the same. I won’t be able to bear it. This is my limit. Do you understand what I mean?”

“I do.”

“Above all, being trapped here doesn’t mean we’re guaranteed to die. The final withdrawal was probably around midnight, right? We still have time. We should be able to try something. Let’s not think about the chance of failure until we actually fail.”

“I suppose there’s no helping it.”

What Joanna said next was closer to a monologue.

“Why wouldn’t I feel the same way? I only wanted to hold on to the more certain possibility. Many lives are at stake. But... yes. It can’t be done, can it...”

Then she gave a gloomy smile.

“Understood. We’ll do as Gyeoul wants. Let’s look for another way together.”

“Thank you.”

The cameras began breaking again. The experiment zone’s area-wide broadcast, which had kept speaking to them, had gone quiet at some point. Maybe Chadwick had grown tired and left, or maybe Chadwick was simply watching.

Before long, they reached the last one. Gyeoul had spent one more magazine by then.

“Chadwick. Are you still there?”

The final closed-circuit camera reacted to Gyeoul’s question. It turned with a whirr and focused on him. Its light came on. A signal that the sound here was being carried to the other side.

[Have you perhaps changed your mind, Lieutenant?]

“Of course not. I just thought I’d say goodbye.”

[Goodbye?]

The voice sounded disappointed, yet suspicious. Gyeoul nodded lightly.

“Yes. I hope we meet again. Don’t die somewhere pointless, and stay healthy until then.”

He heard weeping. The twisted patriot was sincerely grieving America’s loss.

If Chadwick thought they had any hope of escaping, there would not be that much composure. Did that mean the zone’s isolation was that certain? The provocation had been meant to test the waters from the start, and Gyeoul had not expected an answer. He pulled the trigger. Thump! The broken circuit board and shards of glass scattered. Crunch, crunch. They broke again beneath the boots walking over them.

Hoo. After letting out a sigh, Gyeoul said,

“They really built this facility well.”

The closed-circuit cameras’ surveillance range covered the entire zone. Which meant that once the search was over, there was no section Gyeoul had not seen. Unlike in typical movies, the ventilation ducts were too small for a person to enter, and even those had several layers of tight bars over them.

He checked just in case, but there was a pressure door inside the corpse disposal chute too.

“What do we have? You don’t happen to have explosives, do you?”

Joanna looked troubled by Gyeoul’s question.

“I brought a little plastic explosive (C4) for door breaching, and I also have some 50-grain Detonation cord, but... neither has enough power to break through thick alloy.”

Detonation cord was a nylon cord coated with explosive. The 50 grains referred to the amount of explosive it contained. The type Joanna carried held only 10 grams per meter, meaning it was the weakest and lightest kind, just enough to cut through an ordinary lock.

‘Is there no hope even with skill acquisition...?’

For any skill, the range where 「Talent Benefit」 applied was limited. The higher the grade climbed, the fewer times Gyeoul had learned it in the past. Even with 「Firearms Mastery」, the highest he had ever reached was Grade 17, only the middle of the superhuman realm.

Of course, realms beyond superhuman existed, but they were impossible to reach through ordinary effort. This inefficiency was also why Gyeoul did not raise skills recklessly.

How long did that wordless silence last?

Joanna, who had been sitting against the wall in anxious thought, suddenly spoke.

“We may be able to use the Trickster over there.”

“How?”

“The Trickster that fought Gyeoul at Atascadero State Hospital went around opening locked doors.”

Now that she mentioned it, that had happened. Before the disaster, the hospital had also served as a prison for inmates with mental illnesses, and after the plague, it had been a regional base for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gyeoul could recall that time vividly. Since it was where he had first encountered a Trickster, it would have been strange if the memory were not vivid.

The cunning monster had released the trapped mutants and used locked doors to set traps.

“It’s still a hypothesis that needs further verification, but the Quarantine Strategy Institute suspects that Tricksters may be able to manipulate simple mechanical structures with electromagnetic fields. If that hypothesis is correct, then if things go well, couldn’t it open a locked pressure door too?”

It was an optimistic guess. The internal structure of the doors sealing the experiment zone had to be far heavier and more precise than the iron-bar locks in the hospital. Could the battered Trickster really open one? Still...

“It’s worth trying.”

They were in a situation where they had to try anything. Gyeoul responded positively.

“Before that, we should deal with the other mutants first. The electric monster may be a wreck, but if we somehow lose it and it starts opening random cells, we’ll be in trouble.”

“Then I’ll go right. How about we circle in opposite directions and meet again where the Trickster is?”

“Good. Let’s hurry.”

They had already looked through the zone anyway, so Gyeoul judged that saving time mattered more than safety now.

Killing the trapped mutants one by one was not especially difficult. Considering the balance of their remaining ammunition, though, Gyeoul put his pistol away midway and used his rifle.

‘We might have to fight as soon as we get out of here.’

Even if it lacked power, a pistol was much better than a rifle for reaction speed.

After finishing off all the test subjects, each more hideously distorted than ordinary mutants, Gyeoul reached the Trickster. Joanna appeared a little over a minute later.

The Trickster lay there just as it had at first, making a boiling sob from behind its gag. Grind, grind. Even though it was chewing the gag with a mouth missing all its teeth, a sharp metallic sound came out. Mutated blood poured from its crushed blue-black gums.

“They welded the shackles completely in place. It must be because of the hypothesis you mentioned, Anne. We can just cut the chain with Detonation cord, though.”

Even if it could no longer use electricity, they must have decided it was better to be safe. When handling special mutants, it was best to be as careful as possible.

Joanna searched the area and found a large body bag with a silver lining.

“It’s too large for a human corpse. It was probably used to capture the Trickster. They would have been in trouble if it self-destructed on the way back and generated an electromagnetic pulse.”

Gyeoul suggested,

“Before releasing this thing, we should put sensitive items in there. Electronic gear like radios and night vision devices, and dangerous explosives like electric detonators.”

For now, they could not predict how the freed Trickster would act. It might have gone insane from all the experiments and overload its own body the moment it was released.

Gyeoul covered the cunning monster’s face with a white coat that had been hanging over a nearby chair. He tied the sleeves and hems together to blind it. The monster shook its head violently, but the resistance was meaningless. Joanna, who was just taking out the Detonation cord, asked in puzzlement.

“What are you doing, Gyeoul?”

“This thing is smart. It’ll find our actions suspicious. I want to at least keep it from seeing the Detonation cord. Then it might not realize we released it on purpose. That’s only wishful thinking, though.”

Joanna seemed to find that reasonable and slowly nodded.

They wound the Detonation cord around the chain and withdrew. The two crouched behind a partition at a suitable distance.

Joanna gave a small, low warning. She told him to cover his ears. She covered both sides of her own face with her elbows too.

“Detonating. Three, two, one.”

The vibration was intense. The linear boom exploding indoors was loud enough to make their bones ache. It felt as if everything from the crown of his head to his teeth was ringing. The only living monster’s scream followed like an echo. Had it been injured by the aftermath of the explosion? Gyeoul stuck his head out and saw the severed chains dancing. A violent struggle.

The thrashing creature finally threw off its hood. It screamed briefly from the pain of electrodes being torn from its shoulder blades, then flattened itself low and scanned the surroundings. Was it releasing electromagnetic waves? Irregular static flowed from the nearby speakers.

Now they had to push it toward the entrance.

Tat-tat-tang! A deliberately missed three-round burst sparked at the Trickster’s feet.

Kyaaak!

The monster instinctively backed away. Maybe because its body was far from whole, it chose to retreat for now even after spotting Gyeoul and showing aggression. One arm, boneless from torn ligaments, hung like a tail. But it was moving at a slight angle away from the entrance.

Gyeoul frowned and aimed beneath the foot the Trickster was about to set down. Then he fired just before its foot touched the deck. The monster flinched as if burned.

Under the steady warning shots, the Trickster eventually drew closer to the destination they had chosen.

At last, the monster reached the pressure door. There were five rounds left in his second magazine.

Grrrrrrgh! Kweeeek!

Every time it made a phlegmy cry, blood splattered in every direction. The Trickster clung desperately to the thick alloy. Crackle, crackle. Small discharges sparked whenever its hands felt over the surface.

“Please... Come on, you monster bastard.”

Joanna’s encouragement sounded strange. She seemed startled by her own words too. Who would have thought a person would end up cheering for a mutant?

There seemed to be a strange scraping sound from inside the door.

But at some point, the mutant’s movement stopped.

It looked like someone who had realized something. It took its hands off the door and stared in Gyeoul’s direction. It no longer crouched. Instead, it spread both arms, as if saying, Shoot me if you can.

‘Did it realize I’m missing on purpose?’

Should he shoot it once in the torso even now? Would it not survive that much? Gyeoul went back and forth, but the Trickster’s abnormal condition bothered him. Joanna clicked her tongue, switched her rifle to full auto, and raked fire over it. Kakakakakang! A chain of gunshots sharpened further by the indoor echo. She seemed to have suspected the same thing as Gyeoul. Three of the bullets struck the mutant’s leg.

But it was a mistake. Seeing accuracy far too low for the distance, the monster familiar with human weapons finally became certain. The proof was the disgusting smile that pulled up the corners of its mouth.

Grk, grk, grrrk.

It looked at the closed door, looked at the two of them, then looked at the closed door once more...

Laughing like that, the monster seized its own throat with its intact hand.

“No!”

Joanna’s scream-like shout rang hollow.

The Trickster’s fingers dug into its filthy skin. Crunch, crunch, squelch. The sound of flesh tearing and vocal cords being ripped out. Its trembling head bent back at a grotesque angle. Thud. The monster dropped to its knees. Blood spurting from an artery soaked the ceiling. Bloodshot eyes looked this way. Gyeoul’s eyesight was good enough to see the monster’s yellow pupils dilate.

The Trickster died that way.

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

Q. Chungu-nim: @I’m enjoying the story, but it really has less and less dreams or hope as it goes on... Can Gyeoul really become happy..?

A. Yes. Since the author’s own life is hard, I wanted to write a story about a suffering person becoming happy. Haha.

Q. Calpis-nim: @If Big Sis Ada won’t work, how about a real man rated 12 out of 10! The disaster from hell, Doomguy? Ah, you said before there was a guy, or maybe an old man, who shoots lightning from his hands...

A. Doomguy would rip and tear everything to death, so the novel’s genre would change, which would be a problem. The Unlimited Power old man was that old star whore, the elderly Park Woo-cheol.

Q. Crysis2-nim: @Gyeoul decided to become Gyeoul... This is the best, author-nim. I pay for Noble just to read this one work. / @Now it’s okay to go back. To the people who didn’t want you to leave. Uaaaah, this is insane!

A. I’m truly grateful that you’re still enjoying it even while many people have left.

Q. Naelleum-nim: @ Ah, this is fun .... I can’t even guess how the plot will unfold.. How many chapters do you expect before completion???

A. Hmm... at the current pace, I think it will go over 300 chapters, but I’m not exactly sure. The wish to finish it quickly grows more desperate by the day.

Q. CurryRice-nim: @A self-proclaimed psychological counselor... Gyeoul has already noticed she isn’t a real psychological counselor. Does he know who she is? Well... considering Gyeoul’s surroundings, I suppose he could infer it pretty quickly lol.

A. Since the kid is pretty smart and sensitive to people’s hearts... and Gyeoul’s human relationships weren’t very rich to begin with.

Footnotes:

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