Chapter 154

The car’s engine sounded smooth for a new car.
In the silence, Noctane glanced in the room mirror. The faces of his companions in the mirror were all stiff and rigid.
‘Mr. A. You’re making me uncomfortable.’
In retrospect, it was Kim and Asterike who were leading the conversation on the road. We only spent one day together, but we were able to get to know Dustborn as a group.
More than just the title of president, Kim seemed to be an important focal point, and it didn’t feel harmonious in isolation. It was more like a gathering of friends of friends.
A lot. I coughed uselessly and opened my mouth to speak.
“I’m surprised you all don’t get along…?”
“It’s noisy.”
“Shut up.”
“Be quiet, you.”
The slaps to shut up came in waves.
I cringed at the nervous tone of his voice.
“…… is mad at me for saying something.”
He grumbled timidly, his voice crawling.
You guys, I don’t even know if porridge works.
Thanks to Noctane’s bullshit.
Chelsea, who had been driving with a serious expression on her face the whole time, sighed.
“Both are fine, right?”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You said you were from Legion. Did you hear anything?”
“The old man, no, the godmother, hated small talk.”
Edwin was raised by his godmother, but he didn’t really know much about her. It wasn’t a relationship where he felt comfortable asking her questions, and she was deeply reluctant to open up about her past.
“All I know is that my godmother is a mutant called Vidia, and she hates her own kind.”
“I don’t know who the godmother is, but from the context, I’m guessing she’s the same Deborah that the woman from a moment ago was talking about, the one who could turn a whole country into a hateful community….”
Ekidna snorted.
“I don’t think it’s a peaceful place.”
“Ha-me-charm.”
There was a blatant tongue-in-cheek sound.
“Mr. Ekidna. Are you trying to get the boss wrong, now?”
“I’m just stating my personal opinion, which is closer to the truth.”
“Oh, I see, you’ve always been that outspoken and opinionated, I thought you were timid because you couldn’t even make a sound when the boss was around.”
In the face of criticism, Ekidna hasn’t lost her signature chic.
“When you can’t refute the message, attack the messenger, typical.”
“Who wanted logic, I have a brain, I have thoughts, shit, yeah, it’s dangerous, but what can we do, we’re just going to trust, we’re just going to do our job and do it well.”
“Young, young, young. The more urgent the time, the more important logic becomes-”
“You shut up too, just.”
Chelsea gave up on the conversation.
The mindset was so different.
“How can a normal person not have one.
From Asterique to Noctane, which is just getting started. Chelsea herself was no exception. In fact, she was self-aware that she was a little on the self-objectifying side.
“Maybe the boss is a psycho.
In the end, the crazier ones control the lesser ones. Chelsea desperately wanted Kim to make it out alive.
She was not happy with her current nest.
Tick, tick!
An ornament that looked like small pieces of stone glued together tapped against the front window. Like a magnet, it seemed to be drawn somewhere. I turned the steering wheel to follow the object as it moved further and further to the left.
Chelsea’s eyes shaped as she drove. Her usual boredom was nowhere to be found, and she sensed with her skin that a great epochal shift was upon her.
I’m part of a ridiculously important operation.
My shoulders felt heavy, and I strained unnecessarily.
“……By the way, my boss, what if we don’t have a car and we get lost?
I was worried.
* * *
With two cars, a wrap and a dustbone, we had no trouble getting around. Once we got out of the center of Shamalsina, we found a less damaged area.
The road was littered with cars. It looked like a pileup. Like the guards at the checkpoints, decomposed bodies were often found in the cars.
Most of the keys were still in the car, so I picked one in good shape and got in. I stared at the dried blood on the seat for a moment before asking Altayre a question.
“You said you’ve been here for two weeks.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Survivors?”
“It’s not that they don’t exist, they’re just extremely few in number.”
“Yes.”
Kim couldn’t find a way to describe what she was feeling. Relief, devastation, or anger – it was a bizarre mix of proportions, like a bombastic liquor with the proportions all wrong.
But emotion took a back seat to reason.
“Guide me. Where do I go?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to look for survivors?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s not the right time.”
If someone is seriously injured, helping them won’t save their life. If you’re lucky enough to have your limbs intact, you don’t need to help. It’s your choice to evacuate or live like a scavenger.
Before you go, one last time.
The landscape of the doomed city is etched into my retina.
“I’ll have to get used to it.
When the tidal wave of the predestined era hit,
From then on, it’s no one else’s business.
“If there’s a way, I’ll open it for you.”
Altayre, sitting in the backseat, drew a dagger from his arm. Asterike, who had been watching, quickly jumped to her feet, her eyes widening at what was about to happen.
Altayre had slashed my palm.
“What, what are you doing?”
“A child is sent as a messenger because he is endowed with the proper powers. He cannot be baptized like Deborah because he is not pure, but he can borrow the power of the ministry with ease.”
Words spilled from her mouth. The dripping blood became viscous. The sticky slime escaped to the outside of the car, covering every inch of its body.
“May the two of you close your eyes, for it is harmful to the spirit.”
“Didn’t you have to get a car?”
“No, you’ll have to drive, because like I said, we’re just opening up ‘roads’. There’s nothing wrong with walking, but it’s a lot less time consuming this way.”
“That’s interesting.”
Kim stuck his tongue out. I’ve seen it in games, but it’s still a weird spell.
‘It’s a waste.
Altayre was a character who had no chance of joining the lab. Not just him, but all of Vidia. Her godmother is a heretic who runs amok in the world.
I swallowed hard and closed my eyes.
I drove straight ahead, not looking at anything. Curiously, the car didn’t even feel like it was swaying, giving the illusion that it was actually stationary.
How much time has passed.
“You’ve arrived.”
When he heard the voice, he opened his eyes to find his surroundings had changed. Instead of a human city, I was in the middle of a forest of thorny trees.
The sunless forest had an eerie atmosphere. Especially that one in front of me. At first glance, a cylindrical tower with a long history cast a shadow on the forest.
“I will take you straight to the priest, please follow me.”
Altayre got out of the car first. Kim and Asterique glanced at each other, then followed Altayre. Their gait was calm, but strangely distant.
“Why does he seem so fast when he’s just walking?”
“You have long legs.”
“I like the ratio better.”
“You’re competing in a weird place.”
I didn’t feel comfortable comparing them, so I let it slide.
Profit.
When I reached the front door, it opened on its own.
The inside of the tower was equally dark. Torches danced in the air from antique torches on the walls.
“When walking up the stairs, please be careful not to look down.”
“What happens when you look down?”
“It won’t work, it’s just common sense advice, so don’t pay too much attention to it.”
“Oh, yeah….”
It was a disingenuous statement.
─SissySissy.
I was walking up the stairs when I heard an unidentifiable sound coming from below. It sounded like a child’s laughter. Like writing with a fountain pen. Like fingernails scratching a blackboard…….
The urge to turn her head and check was overwhelming. Each time, Asterike squeezed Kim’s sleeve. She’d been a ghost since time immemorial.
Luckily, the destination wasn’t too far away.
A hallway on the fourth floor.
Altayre stopped in front of the room. This time, he didn’t even knock. The arched door opened automatically.
I walked in and there was a woman in an ornate office.
“You have some very special guests.”
Kim involuntarily frowned. It was the woman’s appearance. Not because she was unpleasantly ugly, but because she was all too familiar.
‘I knew they looked alike, but….’
In reality, it was more than a passing resemblance.
The priest’s face matched the godmother’s almost perfectly.
“I heard you and Deborah have a history of bad blood.”
She smiled, as if her displeasure with Kim’s behavior was actually sweet. A smile that seemed more inorganic than Altair’s, weathered by time and devoid of emotion.
It’s not surprising. In the setting, the priest is a 200+ year old monster. He should have been in the back room long ago, but Dvora’s escape has kept him there unwillingly.
I bowed my head out of respect for my elders.
“I’m Yi Hyun Kim, and this is Asterike.”
“Thanks for the polite introduction, but, hmmm. I’m in trouble.”
Her appearance untouched by time. But with the slow movements of an old man, she gripped her teddy bear.
“I don’t have a name for it, so you can call it whatever you want.”
“You could be a priest.”
“That’s not a funny answer…….”
I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t care. When you’re 200+ years old, you don’t have to worry about mold on your brain. There’s too much of a generation gap to socialize.
“Could you please cut to the chase?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll do that even if I don’t have to.”
Smoke billowed out of the pipe.
“We may live in seclusion in a foreign land… but we are not unaware of the happenings of the world. Especially since Deborah ran away, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the goings-on, and I’ve heard what you do for a living.”
Swoosh, whoosh.
The smell of burning plastic or rubber or something that didn’t look like cigarettes hit me hard. His eyes, blurry with boredom, became a little clearer.
“Children of the earth, I entrust you with a favor.”
His eyes, like amethysts, gave off a chilling glow.
“Deborah, kill my daughter.”
“Do you have a compensation plan in mind?”
The priest’s hand froze as he asked for his reward.
“……Haven’t you ever wondered what’s going on?”
“I’m sure you can ask, but there’s a fee.”
“It’s an unusual Aharo, as I’ve heard.”
She put the teddy bear down.
“You asked for payment. I’ll pay you in advance. You will need a means to contain Deborah. With the holy artifacts we have, we may be able to influence the Sanctuary.”
He stares at me blankly.
I didn’t expect to be rejected.
He’s busy, so he’s grateful. But her jaw dropped. An unexplained irritation rose up in her, perhaps because she looked exactly like her godmother.
to change the wording.
“Do we look like a bunch of hicks to you?”
“What, what?”
Altayre, who had been standing like a folding screen, was stunned. It was a rare and unheard of reaction from a priest who rarely showed emotion.
But Kim didn’t stop there.
“You want me to kill people, and you want to pay for the things I’m going to use to do it. What kind of immoral behavior is that? It’s called a necessary expense. Don’t beat me up.”
“Isn’t Deborah a pain in the ass for you too?”
“Then you’re looking for cooperation, not a referral, and if that’s what you want, I’ll treat you as an equal from now on, because you’re not a client.”
“What difference does it make if I ask in advance?”
“My tone is going to be a little less polite, and you’re going to have to put that thing in your hand first, because in what country is it polite to puff on something you don’t even know if it’s a cigarette or not while discussing business?”
Firing like a machine gun, the priest was momentarily speechless.
“That, stop…….”
I haven’t had a headache in a long time.
Surviving as a One-Star in a Dead Game – Chapter 155 (155 of 223)