Chapter.7 Masquerade Ball (7)
***
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
“Hey… Manager?”
“….”
Horororok-
“…profit! Manager Mong!”
Hey!
“Wow, it’s hot! Let’s have some coffee, you bastard! What else! Can you please keep your mouth shut for 5 or even 3 minutes? Ezel!!”
Unlike other members who quietly checked their equipment or rested while on emergency standby, Ralph Monclar, the head of the inspection department, was on the verge of becoming neurotic because of his subordinates who chattered endlessly while organizing reports.
“How many times do I have to tell you to understand! Because the decision has already been made! The president stamped it! The operation to tame that old picture or something is under the jurisdiction of the executive branch! That’s 100% too! “We have no choice but to intervene!”
“So, why is the executive branch suddenly messing with the guy who was sealed away by our inspection department, risking his life, and managed by the inspection department for the past few years?
Ezel was so frustrated that he almost died. Why did those stupid bastards crawl into the central area at this time, and how did they who are so savvy enough to stuff their pockets while crawling around in the hell of Area 45, touch the Old Picture!
In response
to Ezel’s question, Monclar, who had been sipping coffee in silence, opened his mouth with a frown, as if he was somewhat uncomfortable. He’s always a bit crooked in his hat, clothes, and actions. Maybe that’s why this guy, Ezel, always seemed to be good at finding the odd spots like himself.
“You know very well, Ezel, that this is a very important time for the Dome and our Inspection Department.”
“…..”
“Seeing as there is no answer, I take that to mean that if I speak, you will shut up. “There are hardly any details about this incident that have come down to me.”
“Are you talking to Manager Mong too? “Information was controlled up to the manager level?”
“okay. It must be such important and shady information. From what I found out, I heard that he gave away almost half of his interest in Underdome and even showed me the outline of the operation. The president seems to have decided that their plan was bound to fail. Anyway, if the President becomes mayor, the interest will be transferred to us, but it is much better to hand it over as smoothly as possible. You know. What is it like there? I don’t know how many people will be hurt if I go to each and every one of the criminals and those who control them by brainwashing them with drugs and find out all the routes that are connected like a spider’s web, so it would be better to hand them over to me gracefully. Even if that strange project succeeds, I don’t think it will have much of an impact on the vote.”
“But… doesn’t it matter if the plan fails? When it exploded the year before last, not only the actors but also everyone involved died! “We tried to calm it down, but there were many casualties in the inspection department as well!”
“huh? Weren’t you at the Inspection Department at that time? Why do you know so well?”
“Originally, civil service exam students know the history of the group best. “In the workbook expected for inspection officials, it was highlighted as a proud achievement of the inspection department.”
“is it. Well, anyway, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. Even though the executive department is in competition with us, to put it conversely, they are aces to the point where they compete with the inspection department. Since they have experienced the chaos of the Old Picture, they will not go on a rampage by revealing their true nature. At best, it would be like going crazy like a terminal mannequin shoe. “People nearby may experience some aftereffects from the mental storm, but they will be fine after a few months of rest.”
Tuk-tuk.
Monclar lightly patted the shoulder of Ezel, who had a very anxious face.
“I heard that you are friends with BDSM friends. Don’t worry. Nothing will happen. Unless the executive is an idiot, he will push the Old Picture to the limit- ”
[Turn-Ah Ah-Oh Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhis’s
the theay moment
, !
Moments of tragedy that flash through my mind.
“Manager Boo? This….!”
“Uh…. What kind of shit are those idiots and idiots in the executive department doing?!”
Monclar, who was lying in an armchair like a lazy bear, roared like a lion as he endured a familiar scene that plowed through his memories.
“Inspection Department! All powerful forces ready to deploy! The armament is a high-density deflection shield! Thunder Clap! Take care of the rest! “The one that is ready the fastest!”
“What about doping! Since it’s an emergency, it might take a while to get permission-”
“I’m in charge!” cardiac! A tranquilizer! Those who are really dizzy right now, put on the whale riser and come out!”
Monclar jumped into his exosuit, giving orders like a rapid-fire gun. Even if you prepare it by paying, it takes at least 10 minutes to equip the weapons necessary to subdue him. If Old Picture were to approach the dome and scream from inside the city shield just once, 20% of the city’s population would become depressed. Not just depression, but severe depression that leads directly to suicide. There is a shortage of time and information.
It was a moment that required determination. Willing to sacrifice one’s life for the cause.
‘I guess I’ll just drag the body out without any weapons and try to save some time-’
“Chief! What are you doing if you don’t come out quickly? “If your legs are shriveled and you can’t move, I’ll go alone!”
The moment Monclar was thinking about something like death insurance, Ezel, who was already in the exosuit and opened the hangar door, was calling out to him.
“What… are you done already?”
“Actually, I prepared in advance to sneak out!”
“You’re disobeying orders, dude!”
“A member whose combat readiness is so thorough that he refuses to obey orders! “Isn’t it a feeling of recognition!”
Kiing – Slam! Giiing – Slam!
When I came forward with the empty exosuit in tow, I saw Ezel’s face flushed red, as if he had already finished doping.
A snout that doesn’t rest 24 hours a day.
A spirit that does not give in to any craving.
Super My Face is already prepared and cracking jokes while the other members are struggling, as if depression is a thing of the past.
“There is no suitable person prepared….”
“Huh?! “I can’t hear you!”
“You’re going to give me a reward, dude! Let’s go! When it comes to revealing old pictures, first response is the most important! “The two of us go first and stop him!”
“wait for a sec! I just turned on the body camera. Please tell me one more time! “I’m giving you a reward!”
“Shut up and turn up the output! Move with all your might! The goal is the central model garden in District 47! Don’t worry about the battery, just turn on the one with the highest density! “Mental waves are also waves, so they block them quite a bit!”
“I’ll come back later and we’ll talk about it!” I definitely heard it with my own ears-”
“I’ll either accept the prize or pay the prize, so go!”
Clap-clap-clack-clap-!
Two exosuits surrounded by bluish shields jumped out of the hangar connected to the outside of the dome and started running toward the center of the chaos.
***
Meanwhile, Ian, who was preparing for shock in the central area model garden, was hit directly by the guy’s mental wave and fell to the ground just as he was about to run away.
“Keuuuuuu! Argh!”
It was a wave of horribly oppressive memories. The merciless complaint of a monster that turns the brain cells of living people blank and condemns its own life within them.
No matter how much I covered my ears, it wouldn’t have been enough to block his mental waves. One eye of Ian, who was lying on the floor and struggling to get up, was showing the image of a giant raising his body, but the other eye was wandering into the past of the human Kim Do-jin.
=====
He was the head of the family. I’m just hungry for an ordinary salary, and I end the day with a can of beer and watching baseball after work, and I make resolutions for tomorrow with the look on my son’s sleeping face. He was that kind of man.
=====
It appears. The man’s face. A man with a father’s face, a little gaunt and tired, but full of pride in having maintained a peaceful day with his own strength.
Memories of old pictures pass through my mind one by one like a flowing river.
Soaring oil prices.
News broadcasts about dangerous situations every day.
The supermarket has run out of daily necessities such as ramen and rice due to hoarding.
A child who whines because he cannot go outside.
My wife’s depression gets worse day by day.
Kiyiing-!
Ian, who managed to get up, is brought to his knees again by the memories that follow.
Do-jin’s warm eyes as he looks at his son pierce Ian’s heart.
“Damn it… this is why I don’t listen to stories about the past…”
Once the memories buried deep in my heart rose to the surface, they began to stir even more fiercely than the years they had been repressed.
kid. He also had a child to protect and a loving wife.
‘Daughter. my daughter The moment I saw you walking on two feet, I promised myself that I would drop everything and live for you, and that I would become the kind of person who doesn’t have to worry about what others think when I tell them my father’s name. ‘The blood still never stops on my hands.’
Whoa!
Wow!
Behind me, the sound of a watermelon breaking could be heard small but clearly. One of the snipers on the rooftop had fallen. Did you lose your footing due to shock? well. It might be possible with one or two people. But if you don’t have enough fingers to count them, it can’t be called an accident.
There is no one in this world who does not embrace tragedy in order to survive. It seems they have decided to end the tragedy within the monster’s mind wave.
‘i envy you.’
This was a thought that popped into Ian’s head without me even realizing it. I would like to meet. A deep longing fills my heart, but it remains and overflows as tears. As the tobacco he was barely holding in his mouth burns, thick regrets flow out of his lungs.
A gun in his hand. Unfortunately, there is no live ammunition included. Can a blank bullet kill someone? If you put the muzzle of a gun in your eyeball and pull the trigger, wouldn’t the shock reach your brain? Wouldn’t it be possible to finally return to the arms of your family?
A terrible imagination took hold of his consciousness, and as he slowly pointed the gun upward, he saw in the distance that the person he had been looking at from the beginning was falling apart. The body that had been curled up and shaking like an insect becomes limp.
Professor Park. Professor Hepburn. His friends go by various names. Although I was a younger friend with an age difference of over ten years, Ian secretly admired him. Twenty-four. If it were before the destruction, people would have been attending college or just taking their first steps as members of society. No, he must have been only a high school student when he participated in the war.
But this guy survived the struggle. They didn’t just survive, they succeeded in protecting themselves. Something infinitely light that was the first thing countless people in the wasteland abandoned to endure in order to survive. Sometimes on days when the moon is bright, a cold wind blows through that empty space, something that makes you feel bitter. He was holding it in his arms and going through this crazy world alone.
‘He’s a guy who thinks as much as he thinks quickly.’
It was visible in his eyes. He escaped from the human mind and became a cold-blooded killer, witnessing the end of countless people’s lives. The conflict that passed by every time Professor Park pulled the trigger was clearly felt in his eyes. Because it was a feeling that had once stayed in his heart.
‘You’re always thinking. I don’t put any hesitation in my movements, but I scold myself by thinking carefully about why the opponent had to die. I killed it because I had to survive. ‘I killed it to survive, so I will survive worth its weight.’
It wasn’t like I was stupidly drowning in guilt and procrastinating. This guy had a stronger will to live than anyone else, and he was burning his will to live even stronger by whipping himself with guilt stemming from his good heart. How many people in this world are putting weight other than the weight of a spring on top of the trigger?
The professor had something like that. It’s such a dazzling thing that anyone living in the wasteland can’t bear to look back on at least once. Anyone who has experienced him would not describe him as a good person who can pull the trigger without hesitation to save his own life.
You could say it’s humane. The professor was humane. More than anyone he had ever seen. Rather than being a light that brightens the world armed with strong good will, it could be said to be a torch-like light that illuminates the path ahead of someone wandering in the darkness where they cannot see an inch ahead.
And that light was now going out before his eyes.
With a relieved face and no regrets.
A ray of anxiety settles in his heart as he searches for rest. I feel anxious without realizing it.
Ian knew that face. At the last moment, his wife smiled as she was left behind in a city that would soon disappear.
I hear my wife’s voice like a hallucination. The same voice that scolded him when he was always covered in blood and hospitalized when he lived as Raptor’s dog.
‘What on earth are you doing?’
.
.
.
.
The confident look of his wife, with her hands on his hips, scolding him, who was rumored to be the most obsessed with fighting and killing among the Raptors.
Ian put down the empty gun and caught the cigarette butt in his mouth with his hand.
Clutter-
“Phew- Molly. “Death may have taken away your sweet breath, but it could not have taken away your nagging, my love.”
Crack, crackle!
He quietly shakes off the almost completely finished cigarette and then extinguishes it by rubbing the red burning butt into the softest part of the skin below his neck.
The burning pain along with the smell of burning flesh brought him up to the world in the lingering sorrow of eternal rest.
“Molly. You and Johanna… we’ll have to wait a little longer. “I think I’ll be gone soon, but there’s someone I want to keep an eye on.”
Even though his limbs were tingling and the grieving memories of the monster still clouded his mind, Ian felt he could move well enough.
“I think my life is a little more shitty than that monster’s, but it’s because of how I’ve lived so far. “It will happen in the future.”
Ian decided to remain in this anxious and sad reality a little longer.
***
Crack!
After regaining strength in his body, Ian immediately ran to the fallen professor’s side. I could hear gunshots, but there seemed to be no need to worry. That’s because the gunshots coming from high up didn’t echo down, but rather went sideways.
Sigh-
‘There is breathing. Not dead yet. ‘I’m alive!’
However, seeing the nosebleed dripping down, it didn’t seem like a safe situation.
It was a mental wave that made him feel like his brain was turning to mush, even though he was quite far away. The professor was much closer than that, almost in front of the Old Picture, so the density of the waves must have been different than that of anyone else here.
“….Buckle your balls and hold on, Professor Park! Because of you, I threw away my wife and children gently beckoning me across the Jordan River and came back to the damned wasteland!”
Ian smiled wickedly as he watched the professor on his back move his fingers slightly as if responding to his words.
“Okay, don’t think about running away alone, mein Freund (My dear friend).”
After taking off his military uniform and tying the professor up tightly, Ian wasted no time and ran toward an alley about two blocks away. In the distance, covered in blood, he hit the ground with a blunt bayonet. I saw Vex crawling out while taking pictures.
Although he was a bit lacking, he was a guy who always got things done more neatly than anyone else.
***
