Chapter. 10 Lead and Silver (27)
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A marathon meeting that lasted until dawn. The results presented by commanders with extensive experience on the battlefield and in the wasteland after several hours of meetings were not very promising.
‘Compared to the enemy camp, our camp has a defensive advantage, so check and judge the opponent’s combat power through a check attack.’
‘If the above [Orpheus] is activated, it will retreat entirely based on the vehicle’s mobility, then regroup and observe the situation.’
For those who took the lead and brought troops to attack, they had a strong defensive side, so in a way, ‘I will stick with them first and then judge.’ Escape-like conclusion. But I thought this aspect better showed their competence.
In the wasteland, there is no one who has dealt with the Type 3 variant for as long as the Dome soldiers of Area 47 and experienced its uniqueness and destructive power.
It’s not that I said I don’t know because I’m incompetent, but because I don’t know how to deal with the enemy until I actually deal with it, I stuck to a defensive stance of judging responses.
Sreuk- Sreuk- Sreuk-
[Type 2.5 left outside the garrison]
[Operation? Control restrictions? An act that was conscious of the residents?]
[A basin in the valley. A fortress of heavenly beauty. Sniping point? Anywhere possible]
[Orpheus. Destroy? Don’t destroy it? What are the aftereffects if it falls into whose hands?]
Questions that constantly arise even now, as if to prove the extremely complex state of my head. No matter how much I thought about it, it was not a problem I could come to a conclusion on my own.
‘…Hyde.’
[why? Can’t you see I’m busy?]
The only consolation is that there’s always someone waiting to hear anything.
‘The guy sitting inside and just twiddling his fingers is busy.’
[Huh! I wish I could just stay there for a few minutes without thinking about anything. You man, I’m going to die from all the chaos going on in my head as if I put an entire cornfield in the microwave. So, you want to hear my opinion?]
‘Rather than an opinion. It’s cheap comfort. It’s just nothing. There are so many armed vehicles equipped with monster machine guns that can turn 1km of the front line into cotton. What’s there to worry about? It’s all a waste of time, so just think about getting compensation after it’s over. Something like this.’
[If I told you that, it would be very comforting. What should I do with my friends? Please go and ask for it.]
‘I went to see him after the meeting, and he was watching Ezel write his will. There’s not enough rain here. The guy who passed the exam said his writing skills were terrible, and they were having fun among themselves. I didn’t want to ruin the mood, so I quietly left. In a way, I was dragged into this mess, so it’s a bit harsh to say that. If you wear the name of leader, you have to show that you are unwavering.’
[By the way…. You too have a hard time living there.]
A quiet space with no one around. One of the things I liked most about meeting him was the place he lived. A place where there are no interruptions and it’s really just me and Hyde who can talk in peace. The endless darkness that felt so scary at first was now as cozy as the darkness I felt when I just got out of the shower, turned off the lights, and lay down in bed.
Hyde was lying on the sofa and swinging a long pole while talking to me. The guy got up from the sofa with an expression like he was dying of annoyance and patted the seat next to him.
[what. If you want it that much, I’ll tell you my opinion. Sit down.]
‘A child who is only one year old is cocky…’
Flutter!
For some reason, even though it was made by Hyde, dust flies when you lean on it. When I looked closely, I saw that it looked exactly like my old sofa in our shelter.
My house is in District 47, across the wasteland. Leaning on the familiar dust-smelling sofa, I felt like I was home.
Hyde’s opinion was very simple.
[Grow up.]
‘What?’
[Get some sleep. I’m running a simulation 24 hours a day, even when I’m sleeping and half asleep in my dreams. The human brain is also an organ. This means that fatigue accumulates independently of mental strength. The reason there’s a disgusting third personality in your head that’s screaming ‘Please comfort me, inginging-‘ is because you’re not getting enough sleep, so don’t say horrible things and go to sleep.] ‘
This guy. I said something. If you’re going to tell a joke, make it something fun.’
[I’m not kidding, dude. Do you know what early morning emotions are? At around 4 a.m., my teenage emotions suddenly come flooding back and I ask, ‘Are you sleeping?’ Sending the same text message. That’s all~ Isn’t it because you don’t sleep when you should, your biorhythm is ruined and hormonal imbalance occurs? I see that you are in exactly the same situation right now, you guy. So stop talking nonsense and sleep. Orpheus, like the old picture, seems to have an effect on the mind, but does it mean to deal with him in such a precarious mental state? Stupid shell.]
‘Where else have I seen things like hormones and such? ‘I don’t remember it.’
[‘Menopause – When the leaves dry, they will remain as pressed flowers’ I saw it in a book that your father was sobbing while reading when I was 14 years old. When you saw it, you thought it was a really interesting book and secretly read it. [I read about 30 pages and then threw them away.
]
I couldn’t help but laugh at the shy guy’s appearance. Now that I think about it, this guy has changed a lot compared to when I first met him. A lump with only teeth floating in the dark suddenly grew to be about the same height as me and had a similar body shape. Now you have an expression. Even the tone of speech has changed. Her way of thinking seemed like raising a child, but it soon became similar to mine.
Suddenly, along with the feeling of comfort, I began to feel drowsy. A quiet space where the only sounds are the murmuring of hides and the regular sound of water drops. A familiar sofa. Interesting small talk that has nothing to do with what will happen in the future.
‘…Then let’s sleep for 5 minutes.’
As I laid down on the sofa and pressed my foot against Hyde, who was struggling, I heard him swearing. Eat. Another innocent laugh. Now that I think about it, my mother said. He said he was sorry that he must be lonely because he was an only child.
As I remembered the regret on my mother’s wrinkled face, I kept bursting into laughter.
‘… He’s a son who knows everything on his own. I know how to get everything I need with my own hands.’
[Ugh. You sound like brothers. Are you planning to avoid responsibility, father?]
‘You’re doing a damn side kick. ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever behaved like a son.’
[If you had a one-year-old newborn crying and falling asleep in your head 24 hours a day, you would have punctured its head with your own hands and ended it already. I should be grateful to my son, Raemi, who grows up well on his own.]
My eyes close. For some reason, I didn’t think anything of it, so I was able to comfortably leave my body to the beast demons that came like waves.
.
.
.
.
.
After a while, Hyde sighed as he saw the professor starting to snore in earnest.
[Oh my goodness. I thought I couldn’t hold on and would explode.]
The professor was completely asleep.
Hyde looked at the professor, picked up his favorite pole, and pulled it to one side of the dark space.
Thump patter. Jeokjeok- wow!
Warrrrrrr!
[Regroup after retreat]
[What are the Raptors for]
[Relationship between Type 3 variants and memory]
[W was impulsive]
[How long can the battle last with current supplies]
.
.
.
.
.
As if a dam had burst, the professor’s thoughts that Hyde had blocked came pouring out. Since he didn’t seem to have any thoughts of sleep in his head, he tried to block his thoughts with an axe, but luckily it worked well and he was finally able to face his fatigue.
[Well, I’m a bit of a rebellious person, so I’m doing well with my shell. Originally, blocking thoughts and putting pressure on the mind would have been my secondary job.]
The professor was completely asleep. Before you know it, control of your body has been handed over to you.
Hyde had to work hard to restrain himself from jumping to the surface of consciousness without realizing it.
[Not yet. I haven’t finished it yet… Going out like this…ugh! It’s not fun…it’s not fun. Still… I want to watch a little more.]
So, Hyde naturally focused his awareness of going out on his left arm.
[I may not be able to change much. If you think about it, it’s in accordance with my ideals, right? I also quite liked the body inside. Strong and flexible. At least it should be to the point where it’s not uncomfortable.]
I was quite confident. I also did quite a bit of research. If you’re following the ideal form in consciousness in the first place, there’s no way you wouldn’t follow my thoughts, where only consciousness exists, right?
slowly. carefully. Except for the fact that it’s a bit perverted and obsessed with memory, this one’s movement is similar to the mute factor, so if you touch it with a flicking feeling like this…
Woojik! Kwa-kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk by kkuk kkwa by Kwakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkwakkkwakkkwakkkwakkkwakkkwakkkwakkkwa…
[Heehee!]
Hyde unconsciously looked back at the sleeping professor. He seemed to be asleep, not even dreaming about what was happening to his arm.
[It’s okay. You just need to fix it. Just fix it! Everything again! W You did a lot of research. Thinking back to the light that I saw back then, like the scene where personality was formed… Saal-clap?]
Quad deuk! Munch! Damn it! Jump! Jump!
[Ugh! I’m sorry! Dad, I’m sorry!!]
Hyde desperately focused his attention as he looked at the professor sprawled out on the chair in the private barracks and his left arm flaccid all over the floor like a large vine.
[If we leave it like this, there will be war. Repair it somehow… or at least restore it to its original state…!]
At first, I wanted to provide at least a little help as a big battle was ahead. If left like this, his left arm would have to be amputated for daily life, so Hyde clung to his arm with all his might.
For two hours while the professor was asleep, a scene straight out of cosmic horror was unfolding in his personal barracks.
****
“Sigh, I slept well. Ugh, it’s refreshing.”
My eyes opened naturally, as if receiving soft morning sunlight. My head is clear and I feel refreshed. My condition has improved significantly. I have to admit this. Hyde was right. What I needed was not a clear answer, but sleep.
‘I shouted at the top of my lungs that rest on the battlefield was also a form of combat, but I had actually forgotten that. I should thank Hyde. Hey, thank you, Hyde. It was very appropriate advice.’
[Huh oh oh oh oh! Uh um. That’s right. I’m glad you liked it.]
‘Huh?’
I greeted the guy and stretched happily, but something felt… strange. The bodyless guy was panting and sweating, and the inside of the barracks was a mess.
It looks like it was cleaned up in some haste, but there are dusty blankets everywhere, scuffed wooden chairs and tables, and even the ground with deep depressions here and there.
‘….Did you come out?’
[Uh huh huh! I just warmed up for a little while! I didn’t even go out of the barracks!]
I sighed at Hyde’s answer. Somehow this came out briefly. I would believe it if they told me that professional wrestling took place here.
‘Don’t sneak out like that. You should get some fresh air while I’m sleeping. There is something you did for me, so why can’t I do even that much? Just by moving your body for a moment, the mutation factor won’t increase so explosively, right?’
If you think about it, that guy saved my life from death, but I wonder if I was too selfish all this time.
After a good rest, I thought about going back to dry my hair, but then I thought I should clean up this mess, so I reached for the dirtiest blanket.
Twisting, twiddling
“…Huh?”
weird. I got used to the length of my left arm a long time ago. Why can’t I get the blanket? Did you sleep so comfortably that your senses returned to how they used to be?
This was difficult. Now the left arm is one of the important means of combat, but the balance is lost here. I hurriedly swung my left hand, but it felt strange.
A cool, familiar sensation.
“Uh… this?”
Although I obviously fell asleep wearing a thick winter military uniform, I could feel the cool winter air on my swinging arms. What had happened was that the entire shoulder area was bursting open, exposing… an average-sized left arm with black vertical lines scattered across the skin. Although it was a bit out of the ordinary, it was definitely my arm. My original arm! These are not monster arms that can’t even hold a gun, but my arms that my mom made for me!
“Uh oh oh oh! Hey hey! Hyde! this this!!!”
[I’m sorry! Still, it will definitely be helpful in battle… so consider it that way! I sleep!]
“I’m sorry…?”
It looks like he did something while I was sleeping. Even though it hasn’t completely returned to human arms, it’s something like this. I tried to praise him a lot, but…
“Did you… run away?”
This familiar feeling. A familiar feeling of anxiety.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that compared to the arms with more colored flesh, the darker parts were increasing as I went up to the shoulders.
Jiik-Flutter!
“Uh… you’ve increased a bit?”
A military uniform that was hastily thrown away. And what was revealed inside was my body, a mixture of black gloss and flesh color.
The part surrounded by black upper covering the entire left chest in the front and extending to the area near the solar plexus and the area near the wing bones in the back.
When I unconsciously beat my chest with my right hand, a crackling sound was heard. Not only did the outer part change, but the entire chest muscle was transformed into this strange substance.
I try moving my fingers, turning my shoulders, and shaking my fist. There was no problem with movement. No, rather, it felt like it had become more agile, probably because the parts of its body that had changed to that of a Type 3 mutant had increased. A sound like a whip cutting through the wind was heard from the roughly swung fist.
[Well… I was about to face a big battle, and I thought I could strengthen my combat power even a little, so I tried to change my arms so that they could go back and forth between their original form and the form with the claws, but suddenly the upper part of my body started to split… ]
“Okay, that’s it, dude. What is your excuse? Do not do it Do not do it. “It was something I expected to some extent.”
I just forgot about it because I didn’t want it to end up like this. This is something I’ve already heard from the doctor.
[The same goes for changes in meal size. Isn’t it strange that even if you eat dozens of servings, you don’t even feel full? This probably means that changes are starting to occur here and there in the body other than the left arm.]
What the administration researcher said in Area 47.
As he said, it was a digestive issue, but I felt it after coming here and actively swinging my left arm. This kind of power cannot be achieved by just changing the arm. Although it wasn’t visible, my body was changing.
The parts that are now exposed on the chest and back are only the external changes made to Hyde’s will and reaction.
[…..]
“Don’t blame yourself. If you hadn’t changed your left arm and blocked the laser blade, I wouldn’t have had a chance to worry about this. “It’s just that the truth that I had to face at some point came to me a little early.”
W said that once flowering has started, there is no way it will stop. The guy recognized it. my condition. And Hyde is very closely related to that change.
[So… do we also change like him?]
“He’s an adaptor… I don’t know?”
A mutant virus that travels back through memory like a salmon towards the trauma at the moment of death. However, I was not dead yet and my consciousness was clear.
“Like GG’s system says, I have [Overcome Mental Breakdown], right?”
Still, when I say the word “mother” in my mouth, the fishy scent of blood comes to mind. However, it is not the feeling of opening an open wound, but just the familiar sensation felt when rubbing away a scar where new flesh has sprouted. The deep valley in the memory that the mutant virus searches for has long since healed quite tightly.
Maybe that’s the reason for my current exceptional state? While the virus, which began to trace back the memories of the body that did not die, wanders endlessly, unable to find a place to take root… What if Hydra began to be influenced by the newborn pure consciousness? If that’s the case, at the end of this change….
“…In any case, it will look a bit better than the monster born from the particularly shitty memories of that ‘adapter’.”
[….I will find a way somehow.]
“Thank you for doing so. Well, it’s not like they’re going to flip over and jump out like an alien right away, so don’t be too hasty. “Let’s not hurry and startle people like we are now.”
With calm movements, he shook off the muddy blanket, put it back in order, put on his military uniform, and came out.
Seven o’clock in the morning. Hot steam was rising from the kitchen barracks.
“Let’s take the kids to eat. “I might survive today, but it’s too early to think about the future, right?”
[…..]
Hyde must have been so shocked that he didn’t say anything even when I tried to console him. I couldn’t quite read what he was thinking, but I could almost feel that he was thinking a lot.
‘…It’s really okay.’
It’s just that what I prepared for is coming. Right now, I was more interested in the changed left arm than that problem. I don’t know what it is, but I feel stronger. I have to risk my life right now to fight against hordes of special mutants, but this is good news. To check properly, let’s apply force as if stretching out our fingers –
Quad deud deuk! Wow!
The black line parted and quickly returned to its normal, large state. It seemed bigger and heavier than before, but perhaps because most of the connected parts had changed, the feeling of handling it felt lighter.
Bang, bang, bang—
Kwajangchang!
Drop! Clap!
“ah.”
right. This was the garrison.
The moment I swung my transformed arm without thinking, the five soldiers next to me who had dropped their food trays were looking at my face and arm alternately with expressions that were difficult to express. The guy who still has his senses seems to be trying to sound an emergency signal by putting his hand in his front pocket. Even when I saw it, it seemed a bit gross.
“Uh… um… I was checking the condition of the equipment. “Go back and get your meal.”
“Yes yep! “Thank you for your hard work!”
“Well… uh… have a hard time!”
Seeing the soldiers rushing away as if they were running away, I put my left arm back to its original state.
Kwajak, kwajajak! Sigh!
“…It’s very convenient. I’ll have to get a gun after eating.”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t anxious, but I’ll deal with that later.
For now, I decided to focus on surviving right now.
****
