WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 188: Under Black Water (6)

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"Anne, cover me."

Gyeoul approached the monster's corpse carefully. The sensory correction warning had vanished, but there was no telling what might happen. A monster this cunning might have 「deception」. Correction was not Gyeoul's alone. He had to watch for technical countermeasures too, just as he had with Chadwick's mask.

But there was no reversal. The torn throat was fatal. The blood that had been gushing out in choking spurts was now nothing more than a thin trickle. Gyeoul sent Joanna a hand signal.

She approached at a quick pace, keeping her aim steady. But once she confirmed the corpse had no life left in it, the strength drained out of her, and she covered her face with one hand.

"Damn it!"

The pressure door, marked with bloody handprints, remained locked. Even though she knew it would not work, Joanna inserted the keycard into the scanner. Beep. A warning sounded, and the indicator lit red.

"I don't understand. It killed itself..."

Leaning against the door, she swept back her dull blond hair.

"I thought their top priority was spreading the infection, then overcoming or destroying anything that interfered with that. So why did it take its own life? Because it couldn't open the door? Or because it realized it would be shot dead the moment it opened it? Either way, that's not enough reason to commit suicide. It would have been better to make one last desperate attack..."

"People can be killed by more than just physical means."

"What do you mean?"

"This is only a guess, but I think this thing may have known me."

Christmas Eve came to mind. The Trickster that had deliberately let itself be captured to infiltrate the base had smiled meaningfully when it saw Gyeoul's face. Maybe information about Gyeoul had already spread by then. That he was a powerful enemy, one to be more wary of than ordinary humans. The final radio wave the Trickster in Atascadero had emitted right before it died. That must have been the beginning.

"Rather than fight a battle it couldn't win, it would kill itself and leave you with despair and helplessness... It may have thought something like that. It may have judged that this choice had the best chance of hurting me and Anne... It knew that people are finished once they lose hope."

Joanna's mouth fell open.

"No way. That makes no sense. They can't be capable of thought that advanced."

"It was probably the result of learning."

"Learning?"

"Yes. It's been over a year since the quarantine war began. Even counting from the first appearance of the Trickster, it's already been close to half a year. In all that time, do you think there really wasn't a single person who lost hope in front of the mutants and gave up everything? Far from it. I think there must have been a lot. They had plenty of chances to watch and learn. That humans can be broken this way too."

"..."

"So Anne, don't be disappointed. That would be exactly what this thing wanted."

The FBI agent rubbed both hands over her face. A heavy sigh leaked through her palms. She stayed like that for a while. As she steadied herself, Gyeoul looked again at the pale, massive remains. Even with all its deformities, parts of it still resembled a human. That was why it felt like an object shaped out of malice.

Gyeoul felt fear too. Fear that he might no longer be able to wait for Gaeul.

Yet even in the face of that horrible fear, he did not waver, because he was used to it.

'I was always afraid when I was little. Afraid I might be abandoned at any moment.'

Gyeoul had never deeply felt his mother and father's love. So every night, falling asleep had scared him. When he opened his eyes, his parents might be gone. For a child, that was a matter of life and death.

One day, it really happened. He woke in the middle of the night and could not see his parents. Gyeoul, eleven years old, did not wake Gaeul. Instead, trembling faintly, he calmly searched through the dresser. There was a small box at the very back. Inside was a gold ring. The boy felt relieved. They would come back.

Later, even the trembling stopped.

It was the same now. Gyeoul made a calm suggestion.

"Let's look around one more time. We might notice something we missed... Anyway, it'll be better than just staying still."

The FBI agent nodded weakly.

The experiment area was quiet and cold. Even now, the ventilation fans were still running, so the smell of blood and death was not too strong. The boy and the agent walked slowly between papers and corpses scattered like fallen leaves. It was more time to think than time spent truly searching.

They made one circuit, stopped in front of a pool of blood whose edges had begun to dry, then silently began a second. Joanna's face darkened even more.

Just in case, they knocked on the walls and climbed onto tables to check the ceiling's strength. But all they learned was that everything had been built properly. It was a facility meant to contain monsters stronger than humans in an emergency, so of course it had been.

At the innermost part of the experiment area was an emergency generator. Its overall shape resembled a huge engine. Its actual operating method was not much different from one either. The complex tangle of pipes looked intimidating. It must have been a way to supply power to the experiment area in an emergency.

Joanna sounded regretful.

"It would have been nice if that had been set a little way off from the wall."

Since it burned gasoline, a separate exhaust pipe would run all the way outside the hull. But the generator itself was pressed against the hull, so they could not even see where the exhaust pipe was attached.

Generator. Power. Gyeoul's thoughts led to the incineration procedure. Whatever form it took, the detonation would be triggered by an electrical signal. Was there no way to cut off that power? He was not even asking to stop the whole thing.

'If only we can block the signal entering this experiment area...'

Hmm. Gyeoul looked toward the remains of the monster that had killed itself.

"Anne. The Trickster's self-destruction definitely worked by overloading itself, right?"

"...?"

Though puzzled by the sudden question, Joanna answered seriously.

"That's right. They said some of its bodily organs act like coils. The moment the current and voltage exceed their limits, the tissue expands and ruptures, creating an electromagnetic pulse... I heard the mechanism itself is no different from a conventional EMP warhead."

"Then if an already dead body is overloaded, would it still produce a pulse?"

"Uh, I'm not sure..."

Gyeoul explained the idea that had just come to him.

"It wouldn't open the door, but isn't there a chance it could break the ignition device? If the incineration procedure is delayed even here, we might get a chance to escape while the ship is being destroyed. The frame could twist, or the deck could collapse... At the very least, we could avoid dying instantly."

It would be best if the entire ship was paralyzed, but expecting that much would be difficult. They must have prepared for the worst once they captured a Trickster.

He did not mention the possibility that, after failing to escape in the end, they might be slowly cooked in the heated air.

There was also no guarantee that the ignition device would break. They would only learn whether it had worked after the incineration procedure began. Until then, they would have to wait in darkness without lights or even ventilation, breathing in the steadily thickening smell of death.

The answer came after a long pause.

"It's an idea I never would have imagined, but there's one thing that bothers me."

"What is it?"

"I was hoping rescue might come from outside. Someone might notice that Gyeoul was missing from the evacuees. Never mind me, Gyeoul is an important figure."

Assuming Chadwick's words were true, some of the Intelligence Agency agents would not even know the private organization existed. So Joanna had not been clinging to false hope.

"But if the pressure door loses power, rescue itself will become difficult. Any help probably won't be organized. There's a potential enemy, and even the enemy's identity is unclear..."

The previous supervisor's death was already suspicious. In a situation where they did not even know who the enemy was, who would ask whom for cooperation? The search would probably be a solo action.

"No, it would be better to try."

After thinking it over, Joanna changed her mind.

"The Trickster's corpse will deteriorate as time passes. If not now, it might become impossible. Rather than wait blindly, I want to try what we can."

"Good. Then I'll drag that thing here."

"I'll help too."

Once it was decided, it was better to hurry. The boy and the agent ran from one end of the experiment area to the other. The monster that had killed itself still lay sprawled out as before. Only the spilled blood had begun to clot.

When the two of them grabbed and pulled, the remains, larger and heavier than a human, moved without too much difficulty. They cut through the thick pool of blood and left a long trail. The swaying corpse was soft too. It was still too early for rigor mortis to have set in. Only its wrists and ankles were a little stiff.

The rest of the process was not difficult either. It was enough to plug the wires from the generator into the Trickster. Once they put the equipment sensitive to electromagnetic pulses into a silver foil body bag, every preparation was complete.

Joanna stood in front of the generator's control console. When Gyeoul had secured a safe distance and signaled, she grabbed the start lever.

"Here goes! Three, two, one!"

Clunk. She pulled the lever, and with a hum, the generator started. The deck vibrated faintly. It took barely a second for the output gauge to reach its maximum. The instant the indicator changed from red to blue, crackle! The gray-white corpse reacted violently. It looked as if it were alive and having a seizure. For a brief moment, Gyeoul smelled burning flesh. Acrid smoke rose from the special mutant's entire body.

Then came the explosion.

The light vanished. The generator's vibration disappeared too. Darkness filled the gap, swallowing the entire experiment area at once. Gyeoul searched through the body bag and took out a flashlight. Click. When he flipped the switch, the sight it revealed was terrible, even though he had seen it once before. The monster had burst from the inside. Blood-soaked bones and pieces of flesh had splattered even onto Gyeoul.

Gyeoul lit the way for Joanna. She approached carefully, then looked back and said,

"My God. This really worked. If we escape safely, I have to report this."

It was half admiration and half lament. After staring at the smashed corpse, she recovered her equipment. Then it was Gyeoul's turn.

After putting all their equipment back on, they looked for a place to sit. There was still a long time left until midnight, when the explosion was scheduled. They chose an empty spot with nothing around it. The fewer things that could fall, the better. They had to be ready for the entire area to collapse.

In the pitch-black darkness, the two sat back to back and leaned against each other. They turned off the lantern to save the battery. There was not even the faintest light, so even night vision goggles were useless. They could use them if they wanted, by consuming disposable infrared lights.

The FBI agent said quietly, "I hope it had an effect."

"We can only hope it worked."

It was the unavoidable unease they had already expected.

Joanna checked the time often. Almost every minute. It was an electronic watch with its own built-in light, so each time, a faint glow came over his shoulder.

In truth, in rough field conditions, electronic watches were superior to mechanical ones in both durability and reliability, so Gyeoul's wristwatch was electronic too. Though he still had the watch Lieutenant General Xieru had given him.

The FBI investigator forced herself to grumble.

"Time really won't move. Even high school classes weren't this bad."

"Was there a subject you especially hated?"

"There were very few subjects I liked, but if I had to pick, English literature and art history. They simply didn't suit me."

"That's unexpected. I thought Anne would like things like that."

"Me?"

At that casual remark, she burst into suppressed laughter.

To kill time in the dark, they exchanged personal stories. Where they were born, when their birthdays were, what food they liked, what music they often listened to. Intelligence correction busily supplied Gyeoul with information about Han Gyeoul of this world. Even so, he rarely recited it exactly as shown. Small pieces of information where honesty was harmless. Each time, the Gyeoul of this world was updated too.

Their conversation moved from the past to the present.

"When Gyeoul got angry earlier, it was a little scary. But at the same time, I felt relieved. How should I put it? More than at any other time, Gyeoul felt like a person..."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. The usual Gyeoul felt somehow unnatural."

The boy tilted his head in the darkness. Perhaps sensing the movement, the investigator quickly added,

"I didn't mean that in a bad way. You're a truly good person. I've never seen anyone even similar to Gyeoul. Even though I've met all kinds of people while working as an investigator, enough that I thought there couldn't be any type unfamiliar to me anymore."

"..."

"It's just, you have a very strict side, I suppose... There were a few moments when you felt terribly far away. Mm, this is hard to explain. I'm sorry. Did I offend you?"

"No, not at all. Don't worry about it."

There was no reason to be offended. Gyeoul already knew what she wanted to say.

In the midst of that conversation, midnight drew close.

Before they knew it, the time was 11:30 p.m. Joanna said, "The final evacuation should be underway by now. I'll set an alarm for midnight."

Her voice was not the only thing trembling.

"Gyeoul."

"Yes."

"If it's all right, will you hold my hand?"

Preparing for death was always cruel. Gyeoul granted the agent's request.

After that, she did not check the time. Not until the alarm rang.

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

Q. Calpis-nim: @It noticed human intent and even killed itself. The mutants are starting to resemble humans more and more. They're destructive like humans too. At this rate, will mutants that shoot guns show up???

A. It is difficult to answer anything about future developments. What I can tell you right now is that the next special mutant to appear is a fairly decent one.

Q. Geolda-nim: Author-nim. I became curious about skills. Assuming skill grades are the same, Grade 10 or higher, what differences would appear in cases like these? 1. A person who never fired a gun once while alive. 2. A person like 1, but like Gyeoul, who has acquired high-grade skills through games a few times. 3. A person who was actually skilled with guns outside, like someone from the military.

A. Naturally, there are differences based on personal ability. Even with Insight, it was described in the story that there is a huge difference between Gyeoul's use of it and other people's use of it.

Q. svjk-nim: @Wow. I thought the Trickster knew it couldn't kill him and would pick a fight. But it killed itself... Wow. What is the purpose of those infected? The extinction of humanity? Just the despair of nearby people? If it's humanity's extinction, suicide doesn't seem like a very good choice, and if it's blind murderous intent, the content of this chapter bothers me. Is only this Trickster reacting this way because of experiments? Or are all infected with intelligence above a certain level like this?

A. I think the beginning of this chapter answered that. Among the mutants, only the Trickster thinks things through to that extent.

Q. Kaif-nim: @Does this game support multiplayer? If it's multiplayer and wallet warriors join in, that sounds like a seriously scary combination.

A. The main operating policy of Afterlife Insurance is to keep people from meeting each other.

Footnotes:

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