Chapter 135 |
Song Inmyeong had difficulty understanding many emotions, but among them, ‘sacrifice’ was particularly vague.
What is sacrifice?
‘Disregarding one’s own well-being for the sake of another object or person. Losing one’s life or being injured due to war, accidents, etc.’
Since results related to human emotions did not have clear values like science or mathematics, they often caused debates, so it was difficult for Song Inmyeong, who was particularly insensitive to emotions, to understand the true meaning of sacrifice.
He understood love as ‘an irrational and discriminatory judgment that causes obsession and a sense of stability.’ He understood justice as ‘ambiguous vⁱӨlㅌncㅌ supported by laws designed to prevent social chaos.’ He had created various works based on these interpretations, but this time, the theme was too ambiguous.
How could someone like Song Inmyeong possibly understand someone like Lee Jaehun?
“Mr. Song Inmyeong. Do you know where Detective Hong Kyungjun is?”
“…….”
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How could he empathize, and thus, make him into a material of the same grade as himself?
“Mr. Song Inmyeong?”
“Wow.”
“…….”
“fcking awesome.”
Everything in the world he saw was potential material, and Song Inmyeong could create his own world with anything. However, as an artist, he imbued meaning into everything, from the material to the composition.
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The man in front of him was an incredibly enticing material.
“You drop the honorifics when you’re in a hurry.”
“…….”
“Well, I already knew… but hearing it directly gives me a strange feeling.”
“Mr. Song Inmyeong.”
“Hey, is it true?”
Even if I dⁱㅌd and came back to life five times, I wouldn’t be able to find material like you.
“That you want to kill people.”
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The corner of his lips trembled with irrepressible exhilaration.
His head throbbed, and the tip of his nose stung, as if he were about to cry. The tⁱght sensation welling up from ⁱnsⁱdㅌ his eyes melted his brain, and he wanted to stomp his feet and either laugh or cry. An intense happiness tickled his hands and feet to the point that he felt like screaming.
“You became like this because you wanted to save people. Covered in blood, you were practically crawling. You were about to dⁱㅌ, you acted like you were dying.”
“…….”
“…That’s very… contradictory and…”
Isn’t it wonderful?
“Horrifying, right?”
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Song Inmyeong was a light sleeper, so he naturally woke up if someone got up during the night. He also he heard the conversation in the middle of the night between the woman called Kwon Yeonhee and Lee Jaehun.
Did he say he develops murderous intent towards others against his will? Lee Jaehun was half-mad due to the monster called the algae monster. Who would have thought that a martyr, burning himself up for others, would harbor murderous intent against his will? That he would want to kill someone else?
Lee Jaehun was certainly living with a belief that Song Inmyeong couldn’t understand.
“You know.”
But at the same time, Lee Jaehun possessed an instinct that Song Inmyeong could understand and empathize with better than anyone else.
If he used this as material, he could create even more artistic art.
“Aren’t you the real monster, ahjussi?”
“…….”
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“A few days later, or even today, you might kill those students you’ve been caring for. Right?”
Song Inmyeong decided to provoke this pitiful, foolish man.
It would certainly be enjoyable to wait a little longer, build a close relationship with Lee Jaehun, and then slowly break him down until he fell off a cliff himself, but with this material, he wanted to personally end the man’s lifeline and meticulously prepare him.
And the situation no longer allowed for delay.
“You’re much more monstrous than the monsters trying to kill us right now.”
The monsters were trying to kill him right now, And the blatant evidence, half-left in hopes someone would notice, that this martyr was holding—Lee Jaehun had found it.
Now Song In-myeong had only three choices. First, since this world lacked fingerprint analysis or blood tests, deny everything and stall for time. Second, dⁱㅌ together with the attacking monsters. Third, and so on and so forth.
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But in the first case, Song Inmyeong’s art would eventually be exposed, and the scope of his art would be reduced. The second case meant he would dⁱㅌ without completing the art he could have achieved, so naturally, it was rejected.
The remaining third option.
“…Then, Mr. Lee Jaehun.”
Enjoy this moment to the fullest, to the point of death.
“Will you kill me too?”
“…What are you talking about…?”
Lee Jaehun’s expression calmly distorted. He didn’t know how many times his fingertips twitched with confusion and the surging murderous intent. It made Song Inmyeong feel even more elated, knowing that Lee Jaehun was aware of it himself.
He knew, having killed several people. Murderous intent was closer to instinct than emotion. Only humans, not beasts, under heaven could suppress instincts, and the reason for that was reason. Lee Jaehun was enduring the rising murderous intent with his own flimsy reason.
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So if Lee Jaehun lost his reason, if he went mad with confusion…
“That thing you’re holding.”
He’d surrender to that instinct, right?
I’ll be able to enjoy my final art, won’t I?
“It’s mine.”
“…….”
“I killed them. I don’t know what you saw, but I killed them.”
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Because you know how sweet murder is, too.
‘Since you said you’ve been to this world before, you must have killed someone, too.’
I hope you don’t deny it. If so, how were you able to survive until now while going insane, and how could you have acted like a normal person?
And you know what?
“It must have been enjoyable, right?”
I’m just like you.
You wretched liar.
* * *
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A detective must have a quick wit and be able to judge situations.
Criminals, excluding those who acted impulsively, had a completely different mindset from ordinary people. They committed crimes in ways most people couldn’t even imagine, and to put such criminals behind bars, a detective must choose one of two methods:
Learn the criminal’s way of thinking, or develop an almost magical intuition.
Hong Kyungjun had been a successful detective thanks to his overwhelmingly strong intuition, but that didn’t mean he lacked perceptiveness. He was the type of person who honed his perceptiveness based on his intuition.
And recently, Hong Kyungjun noticed that Student Seo Janghwa was uneasy about something.
“Hey, Song Inmyeong! Song Inmyeong, you b⋏st⋏rd, where are you…!”
“Ms. Seo Janghwa, you can’t leave your position without permission…!”
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“Song Inmyeong!”
Hong Kyungjun watched Seo Janghwa’s retreating figure as she shouted in a trembling voice, but soon he swung his wooden plank at the monsters rushing towards him.
“…This is… troublesome.”
—Crack!
A strange sound, too complex to be just a dog yelp, echoed through the forest.
He had learned how to deal with people, but he wasn’t familiar with fighting beast-like monsters. Hong Kyungjun realized he was being gradually pushed back by the onslaught of monsters.
“Mr. Hong Kyungjun…!”
Squish, thud!
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“Shouldn’t we run away?!”
Kang Mina slammed the back of her hammer into a monster’s head and then kicked it in the abdomen, pushing it away. Although she wasn’t particularly strong, her technique seemed good, as the monster struggled but couldn’t get up.
A grotesque monster, seemingly stitched together and covered in colorful cloth, surrounded by a muddy, translucent slime. The monster’s shiny plastic button eyes spun as if they weren’t fixed in place, a sight that made him nauseous. Its short tail twitched like a broken toy, then swayed gently like a flower petal.
Hong Kyungjun suddenly felt like he might go insane.
“…It’s still difficult.”
Why do they torment us?
Why do they love us?
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“Mr. Kim Kijung, are you holding the plank properly?”
“I, I… I can do this much! I can do it!”
“I’m not criticizing you, just trying to encourage you.”
A sigh caught in his throat.
‘What’s the reason for this sudden monster rampage?’
Hong Kyungjun had always found it strange. If they stayed put, most monsters wouldn’t harm the survivors, but at random moments, they would actively approach humans. Although the degree varied, a strong interest in living beings was a common phenomenon.
This had to have a cause. Something that agitated the monsters.
Hong Kyungjun thrʊst his wooden plank into the mouth of an approaching monster.
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Thwack!
“Huu…!”
Whimper, yelp…!
Watching the dog struggling and whimpering was quite distressing.
He neither liked nor disliked dogs. When a fellow detective showed him his pet dog, he’d responded politely, saying it was cute, but that was all. He was just being polite to his colleague’s family; he hadn’t praised the dog out of genuine fondness.
To Hong Kyungjun, a dog was just one of the many common animals on Earth, yet the dog monster before him evoked a strange feeling.
“…D⋏mn it.”
It was so pathetic.
And also dⁱsgʊstⁱng.
“I might really go crazy.”
Although it wasn’t directed at anyone in particular, a certain relentless police officer flashed through Hong Kyungjun’s mind. That person would probably welcome Hong Kyungjun’s descent into madness with open arms.
“Everyone… it’s best to avoid eye contact. And sounds too. Everything is stimulating and nauseating, but those eyes especially…”
“You’re still analyzing things amidst all this. Maybe that’s an occupational hazard too.”
He was too preoccupied to even process the doctor’s question.
“It is an occupational hazard, yes. So please avoid eye contact if possible.”
Those gleaming button eyes were making his skin crawl.
It felt like pill bugs were crawling ⁱnsⁱdㅌ his shoes, curling up in fear, and he was crushing them with every step. The sensation of killing dozens of dⁱsgʊstⁱng creatures, despite their insignificance, was burrowing into his brain. It felt like their corpses and husks were blooming from his spine.
The most vu**ar and primitive thing in the world, the hallucination that he was the soil for their life and death. The feeling of having to feel sympathy while being disgusted by it all was far from pleasant.
“…Huu, kk!”
Thud!
He swung the plank hard, pushing away the swarming monsters all at once.
“Let’s go now, move! We have to find Ms. Seo Janghwa!”
“I–I saw which way she went…!”
“Lead the way, now! Mr. Ha Sungyoon and Mr. Kim Kijung, stay in the middle!”
“Ha… what the hㅌll is going on…!”
Perhaps because they had survived this long, the civilians understood Hong Kyungjun’s instructions surprisingly well. It almost felt like he was with his junior detectives.
‘But Kang Mina is still unexpected.’
Fending off another monster, he followed the lead and continued his thoughts.
Kang Mina had the average physical strength and stamina of an office worker. Not to disparage her, but she didn’t seem like the type who could immediately translate thought into action. And yet she could remember where Seo Janghwa ran off while dealing with the swooping crows, it meant her judgment was not ordinary.
‘She even seemed quite adept at handling the monsters.’
Her face was pale, hardly matching the word ‘adept’. but even while trembling, she skillfully wielded her hammer, killing the monsters swarming in the air. He had seen her expertly use the back of her claw hammer to smash into the birds’ heads.
It was an attack and defense suited only for fighting monsters, a skill even Hong Kyungjun, who had dealt with numerous criminals, would struggle to perform. Moreover, she was capable enough to protect at least two other people.
“…….”
“I hear something over there…!”
“Keep moving.”
Hong Kyungjun was a police officer, a detective, and had learned countless tips from his seniors. So, he naturally assumed that Kang Mina must have learned such skills from someone as well. There were things one could learn by observing and listening, even without direct instruction.
And there weren’t many people who could teach such things to Kang Mina, a former office worker.
“—Dⁱㅌ…!”
Lee Jaehun.
“…….”
“Dⁱㅌ. I’ll kill you…”
“This ahjussi is crazy! Stop it, d⋏mn it…!”
“Why did you do it, huh?”
A survivor of the otherworld,
Who coughed up blood, desperately trying to suppress his transformation into a monster. Trying to remain human, struggling to protect those within his human fence.
“Why, why, why…!”
A cruel, yet kind person.
“…….”
“Wow, awesome.”
And the person crouching before him, mocking him freely as if watching a play.
“…What… what is going on…!”
“Such a waste, isn’t it?”
“Huh? Huh? Hey, hey… Song Inmyeong. Hey, hey! Song Inmyeong…!”
Hong Kyungjun’s fingers twitched as he saw a figure suddenly stand up and run off.
He instinctively identified the enemy and the monster chasing him, and hesitated again at the murderous gaze. For a moment, he couldn’t decide who posed a greater threat to the civilians.
That was why, when Seo Janghwa, who was holding Lee Jaehun back, froze, and when Song Inmyeong fled, and when the monster-like Lee Jaehun chased after him, and when a chilling silence scr*ped down his spine, and when several others followed after them…
Hong Kyungjun…
“…….”
Detective Hong Kyungjun… couldn’t move…
“…Just now…”
In Lee Jaehun, he saw the death of the one he both hated and admired.
Not life, but death.