WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The World Is Not a Game ◈
Chapter 12
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“External poisons don't work on Hyeokjin. This is just whisky. A very distinguished whisky called Dalmore 62. But for Hyeokjin, it serves as a trigger for a particular response. To put it simply, think of it as his shutdown button.”
“A shutdown button... So it looks like you did mess with his head, just as I thought.”
“Just as you thought? Had you suspected something was wrong for a while?”
Chuck asked with a faint smile. Nikki bared her teeth in a sneer.
“Yes. Anyone who spent time around him could tell he wasn't normal. Even a madman couldn't run dungeons that obsessively. No, the crazier someone is, the less they'd be able to do it. Going mad in a dungeon is ultimately a desperate reaction to not wanting to be there. Yet he kept going back in voluntarily?”
She gave a small snort, then continued, looking at Chuck.
“It makes no sense. And that's not the only thing that raises questions. Giving up human happiness and pleasure to fill his own body with machinery, not to mention his vast knowledge and technical skills for supporting raid teams. If Hyeokjin had been that versatile from the start, people would've known about him back when he was in Korea.”
“Yes, you're right on every count.”
“I see him often, so I've known for a few years. But it looks like the other S-rank Closers who've worked with him recently are starting to catch on, too.”
“Well, once or twice might pass unnoticed, but anyone who keeps seeing that behavior up close would notice. Should I be grateful that none of the S-ranks are the sort to go on about human rights?”
Chuck smiled bitterly at Nikki's reply, brought his glass to his lips, and drank. Watching him, Nikki sighed and spoke in an irritated voice.
“What are you planning now? And why did you bring me along to take him away?”
“Oh, nothing much. We needed to stop Hyeokjin from getting any more media exposure. As you said, anyone looking at his activities would have to think something was wrong. You're the only one who can transport cargo discreetly, without anyone noticing, so I had no choice but to bring you. I also thought you wouldn't go around carelessly telling people about this.”
Nikki's brow tightened as Chuck shrugged.
“That's all?”
“Yes. I called you here to avoid the eyes of the press outside.”
“...Liar.”
“It's the truth. Controlling a person's mind is quite a sensitive issue. People are terrified that they might become someone's puppet, so their resistance to the idea is tremendous. It would be a problem if the press found out there was something wrong with Hyeokjin's mind. Honestly, I don't know what we're doing. If that was our concern, we should never have put him in the public eye in the first place. ...Though, to be honest, I have no right to complain. I agreed that we needed a new hero to calm people's fears.”
Chuck shook his head as though disgusted with their foolishness, then gave a bitter smile. After a brief moment of self-mockery, he took another drink and continued, his gaze fixed on Nikki, who was still watching him with distrust.
“The government is doing everything it can to control the press, but there are always rebels who refuse to fall in line. The damned bastards keep sprouting like poisonous mushrooms, even when we kill them in secret.”
Chuck's brow twisted as murderous intent poured out of him. At some point, the whisky glass in his hand had shattered, scattering fragments around him.
He looked nothing like the “kind and caring man” the public knew.
Apparently unaware that he had broken his glass, he quietly ground his teeth and continued.
“And the political outsiders are a problem, too. If they found out about this, they'd gleefully shout that they'd found a way to bring down the government and seize power, even with the world heading toward destruction. ‘Project MKUltra has been revived! Those in power will turn us into puppets and rule us forever!’ And the ignorant fools would swallow that propaganda whole. ...Damn. I let my emotions get the better of me. I've broken my glass.”
Only now seeming to notice the broken glass in his hand, he looked down at the whisky soaking his suit and the scattered fragments. He clicked his tongue, summoned heat to dry his wet clothes, and poured more whisky into the glass Hyeokjin had set down.
“Anyway, that's why I had to bring you.”
“Then why did you knock Hyeokjin out?”
“Because we planted the compulsion ‘Run dungeons’ in his head. He agreed not to enter a dungeon because I ordered him not to, but he would've felt an increasingly powerful pressure to keep running them. If things had gone wrong, his mind might have gone ‘pop!’ in a few hours. So I shut him down for a while to prevent a mental malfunction.”
Having finished his explanation, Chuck picked up the freshly filled glass of whisky and drank. Nikki folded her arms and seemed to think deeply for a moment, then turned toward Hyeokjin, who lay slumped beside her.
“Fine. What are you going to do with him once you take him there?”
“We plan to improve his body with equipment that uses newly developed technology, and update his knowledge. Oh, and we'll remove his compulsion to run dungeons, too.”
“Good news. Not that I believe you. This is horrifying. How many people besides Hyeokjin are crawling into dungeons like mad because you've made them your puppets?”
“None. Only Hyeokjin.”
Nikki's brow furrowed at his firm answer. Chuck shrugged under her irritated gaze.
“It's true. The human mind is complicated and sensitive. When we forcibly interfere with it, most people lose their minds in the process. If the cost were reasonable, we might accept those sacrifices and use it anyway, but it's enormously expensive. Getting them addicted to warp drugs and making them run dungeons in exchange for a supply is tens of thousands of times cheaper, and more efficient. Hyeokjin is our first and only success. Well, if you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do.”
“...If I weren't an S-rank, I would've ended up like Hyeokjin, wouldn't I?”
“I won't deny it.”
Chuck gently swirled his glass again and continued as though it were nothing.
“When those Czech government officials applied for asylum, the deal they made with us included your fate. If you hadn't awakened as an S-rank along the way, you would've become a guinea pig like him. Still, you wouldn't have ended up quite like Hyeokjin. Your talent made you a strong candidate to awaken as an S-rank. Hyeokjin... He has talent, but perhaps it's spread too evenly?”
He tilted his head slightly, then took a drink.
“He was a ‘talented failure’ who fell just short of the threshold in every area. His total talent might be on a par with ours. But the problem was that he didn't exceed the threshold in even one area. If he'd managed just one, he wouldn't have ended up like that. In a way, though, he's the perfect material. S-ranks have mental barriers too strong for this sort of suggestion to work. An A-rank we can just barely influence, and one who's capable in so many fields at that. What more could we ask for?”
At his casual words, Nikki's brow twitched several times. Then she rose from the sofa and looked down at Chuck, audibly grinding her teeth.
“Damn it! You really do piss me off. No, this whole country pisses me off! The more I think about it, the more I wish I'd killed every last one of those politician bastards who sold me out and run away, instead of seeking asylum in America.”
“Run away? Where to? We're all aboard the same sinking ship called Earth. Sadly, there's nowhere to run. We have to keep seeing each other, whether we like it or not. So let's at least avoid getting angry and fighting, hmm? There's no need to make things worse, is there?”
Chuck looked up at Nikki with a sly expression and tipped the glass in his hand. His almost taunting manner made veins bulge on her forehead, but she didn't explode. Instead, she let out a deep breath and spoke.
“Right. We shouldn't fight. But one day, you'll pay for your sins. You fucking bastards.”
“Pay for our sins, is it? Ha, haha. Yes. I'd love to. If we can afford to talk about paying for our sins and all that, it would mean we at least had enough breathing room to keep up appearances. Wouldn't it?”
Chuck gave a faint smile and raised his glass. Gazing at the sunset-colored whisky swirling inside it, he spoke as though to himself.
“We wasted far too much strength fighting among ourselves. Religious conflicts, economic conflicts, territorial conflicts... Conflict, conflict, conflict. Almost as though someone had stirred it all up to make a mess of everything. We're finally cooperating now, but frankly, we're very late. What if we'd started working together a little sooner? We'd at least be better off than we are now. Maybe we wouldn't have needed to do filthy things like this. Heh. Why did we fight so much over mere grudges...? Though I suppose that's not something I have any right to say, as the head of an arms company who happily sold weapons to all those snarling sides.”
Chuck drank, his words bitter. Nikki seemed to feel something at the sight. For a while, she couldn't find anything to say. Then, at last, she waved her hand irritably.
Black mist instantly began creeping into existence around her, soon forming an arched doorway.
“Cut the bullshit. I've opened a portal to the defense research institute, just like you wanted. Get up.”
“You take him there. I'd like to stay here.”
Nikki stared at him as though wondering what he was talking about. Chuck gave her a small shrug.
“I'm on vacation, too, aren't I? I'd like to relax here for a while and enjoy myself. Surely that's all right?”
Chuck grinned, glass in hand. Nikki let out an irritated hiss, slung Hyeokjin over her shoulder, and vanished through the doorway of black mist.
Episode 0. Entry
* * *
Regions where the corruption of the shadow world has spread, and the warped monsters roaming them.
The monsters possess superhuman physical abilities that defy the laws of physics, as well as supernatural powers based on warp energy. Yet killing them isn't particularly difficult.
Humanity's power is great.
However strong the monsters are, they are insignificant compared with the terrifying weapons of slaughter created by human cunning.
Even so, humanity is losing ground to them. The shadow world's encroachment spreads like radiation, and no matter how many monsters are killed in the affected regions, more appear.
The monsters always maintain a fixed population.
Whenever monsters die, before long, new ones tear through space in the affected region, appearing in exactly the same numbers as those that have been lost.
At first, unaware of this, humanity unleashed merciless firepower in the name of “wiping out the monsters for good.” But once they learned that every dead monster was replaced, and that the creatures rarely moved beyond the regions affected by the shadow world's encroachment, they stopped wasting firepower on the roaming monsters.
But not today.
The Himalayas, in southern Tibet. Humans have returned to a place that fell to the shadow world's encroachment long ago, a place no one has visited for well over a decade.
Not with the innocent aim of climbing a high mountain, but bringing “thunder” and “flames.”
Footnotes:
Project MKUltra was a covert CIA program that conducted experiments involving mind control.
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