Cgapter 139 |
How often does an ordinary office worker fall from a building and almost dⁱㅌ?
And how often do they see the horrific, gruesome sight of monsters gathered below, as if waiting for prey? What are the odds of experiencing such a series of events and then simply forgetting them?
While the exact answer was unknown, at least Kang Mina wasn’t an exceptional case. The situation where she almost dⁱㅌd was etched into her mind.
“Gasp, huff, sob.”
The world called it trauma.
“Sob…!”
Running away, fleeing without knowing where to go, being chased by something. Kang Mina was certain it would kill her.
The reason Kang Mina had been able to maintain a relatively calm composure compared to the others was because they were there next to her. It was thanks to the people she had to protect, the people she was responsible for, staying by her side. Kang Mina, left alone and running, was, true to her nature, a bit scatterbrained and extremely timid.
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“Hey.”
“Ah, uh, sob.”
“Kang Mina, you should take your things. Okay?”
“Sob…”
Although the distance couldn’t have been that close, the man’s voice resonated loudly as if he were whispering in her ear. Kang Mina was clearly in a state of panic, but there was no one beside her to guide and comfort her.
If he catches me, I’ll dⁱㅌ. He tried to kill the doctor, so I, who am nothing special, will dⁱㅌ quickly. I’ll dⁱㅌ alone, where no one can see me.
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In an unknown world, alone, to a monster.
“Uwa, aaaaah…!”
Tap.
She picked up her pace.
I want to live. I want to live. Driven by the instinct inherent in all humans, Kang Mina moved her feet more desperately. She didn’t even realize she was running right next to the edge of a cliff.
“Ah, uh, sob… uh.”
Kang Mina helped Ha Sungyoon because she wanted to save him, not because she was prepared to dⁱㅌ.
The reason she hit Song Inmyeong’s head, even though she had a vague premonition of what would happen, was simple. Ha Sungyoon had always been considerate of Kang Mina and the others. Though he rarely initiated conversations, he always responded kindly and gently when spoken to.
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She just didn’t want to see such a good person dⁱㅌ. That was all.
Anyway, though she didn’t understand it well, Kang Mina wanted to live.
“…Uh, uh…”
“…Ms. Kang Mina.”
“Manager…!”
That was how she ran into Manager Lee Jaehun.
For a moment, her legs gave way, her center of gravity shifting.
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“Ah.”
Kang Mina was clearly falling through the air.
A strange sense of familiarity washed over her. For a moment, she thought she saw a monster lurking below the cliff. That sickening, weightless sensation enveloped her entire body.
Then, a large hand reached out and caught her.
And at that moment, another monster lunged at Manager Lee Jaehun.
“Kang Mina!”
“…….”
It was all too familiar.
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Far too much.
***
Please save me.
***
“Ms. Kang Mina. Hey, Kang Mina.”
“…Save me, please…”
“…….”
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This is driving me crazy.
‘Why did Song Inmyeong focus his attention on this?’
Gripping a thick tree root with one hand, dangling from the cliff, he continued his thought process.
To reiterate, the park’s flowerbed attracted survivors. Most people, lost and disoriented, instinctively gravitated towards it. And then they fell to their deaths.
The centipede monster consumed the corpses. After being slowly devoured for a week to a month, only clean bones remained, which were then expelled. These bones became nutrients for new flowers, creating a morbid cycle. The flowerbed was rich in medicinal herbs.
“Ah, my head’s a little fuzzy after that hit…”
“…….”
“Fancy meeting you here again, ahjussi.”
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So, in the context of the story, there were only two ways to dⁱㅌ in the flowerbed: falling off the cliff while running blindly, or accidentally touching a flower and being killed by the centipede monster.
And now, Lee Jaehun had discovered a third way.
“Wow, you’re really not going to let go?”
“…….”
“Really?”
He gritted his teeth at the sight of Song Inmyeong wielding the jackknife.
“Even if I stab you?”
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“…I’ll really, kill you…”
Lee Jaehun trailed off, clamping his mouth shut.
One hand clung to Kang Mina, who trembled uncontrollably, her weight pulling on his arm and waist. His other hand gripped a protruding tree root, his entire body strained to prevent them both from plummeting. He was dangling precariously, holding the weight of a grown woman.
And to make matters worse, standing before him, as he desperately clung to the root, was the murderer. Predictably, the murderer held a knife.
“…You know.”
“…….”
“I’m just a natural disaster now. You’re unlucky, ahjussi, and that woman over there is already out of her mind because of the disaster. If you can’t hold on, you’ll both fall down there together.”
Yes, the third scenario, unmentioned in the original novel.
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“That would be beautiful.”
Pushed off a cliff by another person.
“…What is this, an 80s movie…?”
The absurdity of the situation forced a choked laugh from Lee Jaehun. He knew the author loved clichés, but he hadn’t expected the ‘dangling-from-a-cliff’ trope to appear so blatantly.
“Wow, old man, you’ve come to your senses… Are you doing that because you don’t want innocent people to dⁱㅌ?”
“You, I’ll really, really kill you…!”
“See, you could snap out of it on your own. But you acted so crazy in front of me, why? Did you want me to kill you that badly? Are you saying it’s okay for me to kill you? Or maybe it’s your altruism, wanting to save someone else, that forced you to pull yourself together.”
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“I will kill you. And then I’ll bring you back to life, so you can live in hㅌll for eternity.”
“Do you have any idea how thrilled I am? When I first chose this theme, I honestly never imagined such perfect material would appear…”
D⋏mn it, talking to him was useless.
Lee Jaeheon, gripping Kang Mina’s trembling arm, couldn’t help but marvel at the lunatic before him. As expected, there wasn’t a single sane person among those who enjoyed stabbing others.
‘Well, he’s a lunatic, so of course he’d try to throw someone off a cliff.’
He thought of Kang Mina, desperately trying to escape along the cliff’s edge.
He had wondered why someone, not entirely foolish, would put herself in such a precarious position, but it seemed Song Inmyeong had intentionally led her there. She’d seemed increasingly anxious, and the moment their eyes met, she’d misstepped. He suspected her legs had simply given way.
As he grabbed her, with a familiar wave of déjà vu washing over him, Song Inmyeong had lunged from the side, swinging the hammer. The force of the blow sent them both tumbling over the edge. It was only due to his partially recovered strength that he was able to hang on. Had he not eaten the fruit, they would both be dead.
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Of course, even now, they were teetering on the brink of death.
“Whether you endure or not, it will be a beautiful sight.”
“Who do you think you are…?”
“That element of chance is what makes abstraction so beautiful. And I love it when the audience participates in my work. You are both my material and my audience. Whatever choice you make, it becomes part of the art. Isn’t that magnificent?”
“…You’re insane.”
“I wish we hadn’t met here. Then I could have captured you in a painting. Have you ever heard of the dripping technique? It’s a wonderful way to capture the flatness and non-representational nature that are fundamental to painting. No one can truly understand what’s depicted within the work. Honestly, I don’t particularly like it because I can’t explain its meaning to the masses. But I’m certain it would suit you perfectly. Absolutely so.”
“…….”
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“And then, your body, falling and scattering across that flowerbed, in a completely random pattern…”
A languid, excited voice slithered into his ears.
“You would become the paint itself.”
“…….”
“The most self-sacrificing madman in the world, making every possible sacrifice, yet in the end, becoming the very material for art… and dⁱㅌ just like that,”
A sliver of light from the white sky glinted off the sharp blade. The cool steel pressed against the back of Lee Jaehun’s hand, and a sickeningly familiar sting shot through him.
A bead of blood welled up and trickled down his arm.
“When you become my masterpiece,”
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The chilling sensation consumed him.
“Will you live within my mind?”
“…….”
“So I can kill you again, and again, and again.”
A sigh escaped him.
“…Huh.”
What a load of gӨdd⋏mn bʊllshⁱt.
‘But more importatnly, if I dⁱㅌ now, I can’t kill this b⋏st⋏rd.’
Lee Jaehun thought quickly, his mind racing.
He had orchestrated this whole mess to dⁱㅌ quickly, but Kang Mina’s death wasn’t part of the plan. And if he dⁱㅌd now, he wouldn’t be able to deal with this scʊm.
‘If the algae monster were nearby, I could at least pawn him off, but there isn’t a single vine in sight. If things get desperate, I’ll have to kill him myself…’
Lee Jaehun had a contract with the algae monster. Moreover, the monster he had contracted with was the one from his dreams, meaning that even if he were to regress, the terms of their deal wouldn’t change. That meant he would once again have to calculate the right timing and create the circumstances necessary to offer Song Inmyeong to the green algae monster.
if Lee Jaehun were the only one hanging off the edge of the cliff, resolving the issue would have been relatively simple.
“Ugh, sob, uwaaa…”
“…….”
“Save, save me. Ah, uh… huh…”
But a half-crazed woman was clinging to him, a dead weight dragging him down.
Even with his partially recovered strength, escaping this predicament while ensuring Kang Mina’s safety was a monumental task. His arm screamed in protest, his grip weakening, and above him stood the murderer, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.
‘What should I do?’
He was trapped.
If this were his past life, he would simply let go and end it all. But here, death was final, and Jung Inho remembered everything from before the refression. If Kang Mina dⁱㅌd after Lee Jaehun, Jung Inho’s mental state would shatter completely. If that happened, then definitely…
“…….”
Lee Jaehun realized he had no other choice.
“…Hey.”
“…….”
“You want to kill me, right?”
Detective Hong, true to his nature, would arrive soon to apprehend Song Inmyeong. And the person he had in mind would come too. All he had to do was hold on until then.
“You want to kill me yourself, but you’re hesitating because it would be a waste, right?”
Lee Jaehun decided to play along, to humor the murderer.
“Don’t you want to stab me? Shove your fingers into my eyes and swirl them around, gouge them out. Or strangle me with your bare hands, or crush my skull with a hammer until it’s nothing but mush.”
“…Uh…”
“Huh? What do you think?”
And, in his past life, he had a certain talent for this kind of thing.
Smiling, he continued,
“Wouldn’t it be fun?”
Through the novel, Lee Jaehun knew ‘Song Inmyeong’, knew what kind of person he was, what brought him plɛasʊrɛ. Knowing his methods and his thought process, how difficult could it be to pique his interest? He knew this murderer intimately.
‘Song Inmyeong’ treated murder as both hobby and vocation, and he possessed a perversely refined artistic philosophy. But with his discerning taste and the scarcity of suitable materials, he wouldn’t waste them frivolously. He might have indulged in reckless, tactile experimentation as a child, but now, he had grown considerably.
To ‘Song Inmyeong,’ ‘Lee Jaehun’ was a once-in-a-lifetime material, far too valuable to be wasted on impulsive gratification.
“It’s not enough to just kill me in your head.”
That was why he’d said those things. The nonsense about living in his mind.
Lee Jaehun was certain his words had struck a chord with Song Inmyeong.
The man was wearing an infuriatingly bright smile.
“…As expected, you understand me.”
“Bʊllshⁱt.”
“Ah, what to do. I really want to dissect you into 36 pieces and store you in the refrigerator…”
“I don’t like refrigerators. Too cold.”
“Alright then. Let’s do it your way.”
He wiped his face, a chilling laugh escaping his lips.
“This is all to save Ms. Kang Mina, isn’t it? I know. You’re stalling for time, waiting for the detective to arrive. And our kind gorilla, too.”
“…….”
“But you’re the only one who’s ever made me an offer like this. So… Well, you know what I mean.”
Muttering to himself, Song Inmyeong twisted the jackknife against Lee Jaehun’s hand. The sharp blade sliced through skin, digging into flesh. Lee Jaehun watched, unflinching, as the murderer met his gaze once more.
“This is the first time I’m creating a masterpiece with the material’s cooperation.”
He wore an expression of perverse delight.
“So this time, will I also become the masterpiece?”
“…Ha.”
Seeing something else layered over Song Inmyeong’s form, Lee Jaehun felt a chilling fear.
The agony of enduring, unable to fight back.
“You really…”
“…….”
“I’m going to kill you, Inmyeong.”
“…Wow.”
Thud.
The small knife plunged through his hand.
“fcking awesome.”
Fʊck, you’re right.