Chapter. 10 Lead and Silver Coins (30)
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Ouch!
When you throw your body, two eerie bright yellow lights quickly follow you to the side.
As the saying goes, the changed appearance of the guy was closer to that of a tiger. To be exact, it would be closer to ‘having been a tiger’.
The skull, with its skin and facial muscles rotting away and leaving only traces of fur between the white bones, was certainly close to that of a large cat. A strange appearance with only yellow eyes shining through empty pupils. The fur on the body, visible through the worn and torn military uniform, was dull and dull, like a dead corpse, but strangely enough, the inside was full of elastic muscles unique to wild beasts.
It looks like a wild beast whose exterior has rotted away.
Crack! Gagagagak!
Sparks fly from the place where my hands come together, and as I block out the blade flying towards my side and sigh, the muzzle of the gun is already in front of my eyes.
‘Fuck… fast!’
Taaaang!
Bleep-
A burning pain felt along with ringing tinnitus. I was grateful for the pain I felt at the tip of my ear. My head is so hot that I don’t even know what I’m doing, and I don’t have a clear sense that I’ve dodged an enemy’s attack!
That it was blocked. That meant the enemy’s guard was opened.
There is a flow to close combat. The attacker must endure the same shock as the defender, and it is not easy for a moving person to regain balance compared to a standing person, so a failed attack leads to alternating offense and defense. The most basic common sense in close combat.
The left arm was stiff from the shock of defense, but the right arm was free. Heading towards the enemy’s head, which is completely exposed to the front thanks to the forward balance, and is approaching surprisingly quickly for someone who has lost balance….
“…?! Damn it!”
Sigh!
Taaaaa!!
Instinctively, I put the brakes on my toes and took a step back, and at the same time, its serrated teeth grazed my right arm as I approached it. The grip strength is enough to make your ears tingle from the sound of teeth clashing.
“Ugh! Ask this bastard! “Common sense doesn’t apply!”
“Hahaha! Then, does a tiger bite a person or not?”
“What is a tiger! “You look like a zombie tiger!”
I tried to talk to him somehow to buy time, but I felt like I couldn’t win against him using normal methods.
Fierce claws flying from a blind spot and those tusks aiming for the neck. The movement itself was close to that of a beast, but as I moved my body to avoid the movement, the muzzle of its gun was in front of my head.
A fighting style that is close to perfection, wielding thoroughly calculated wildness.
I don’t know what kind of memory it was born from, but this variant calling itself Old Tiger was definitely specialized in combat.
‘Shit. ‘It’s coming in again!’
I saw him leaping. You should avoid it, but you have already hastily backed away and your body’s balance has become significantly off.
‘I can’t avoid it… I can’t!’
ping!
In an instant, my left hand knocked off the pin of the grenade on my waist, lost my balance, and rolled it towards my falling back. The moment the guy attacks, both of them are completely caught in the explosion.
I could see its bright yellow pupils tracking the grenade before the pin even hit the ground. The sound of a burning wick was heard in the animal’s ears. A grenade rolled towards one’s body with the intention of detonating it.
“It’s Donggwijin. “What a pathetic thing!!”
Buru growled once and turned around. A flexible movement in which the body is thrown perfectly forward, the body is rotated with the power of the waist, and then the body is kicked off the ground and the distance is widened.
Crackling, rolling…
But I didn’t hear the explosion I was expecting, and I was able to take a breath as I managed to increase the distance between him and him as he retreated.
“Misfire… I didn’t rely on the same luck.”
Sweet.
As if it was fun, Noho picked up a fallen grenade.
A grenade that cannot explode because the metal between the detonator and the diaphragm at the top of the grenade’s safety handle has been crushed. A satisfied smile formed on Buru’s lips at the sight of it not just being a defective product, but as if it had been pressed down by a very strong force.
“Cheating…yeah. It was your favorite claw. Sharp and cunning. It’s really nice to see. Excellent. “It’s great!”
“…Praise someone after turning them into rags.”
“I can’t help but praise you for having so much composure to say something like that even in this situation.”
“You don’t have time, dude. “That’s the kind of person he is.”
The professor joked and tried to remove his hand from the side he was pressing with his right hand.
Fish Sit –
‘Damn it. It exploded. I need time to stop the bleeding somehow… I need to say something more…’
The first blow. A deep cut in the side, unable to cope with the surprisingly sharp movements of the creature.
If it weren’t for the area where the carapace had grown and become blocked, the internal organs would have been cut off. I managed to stop it by popping a rapid coagulant, but no matter how good the medicine provided by the dome is, it takes time for the wound to heal. If it starts to attack again, it will escalate further.
An enemy that cannot be resisted.
I have suffered fatal injuries that require immediate treatment.
Suddenly, a wise idea occurred to me that made me lament why I hadn’t thought of this until now.
‘Let’s bounce!’
When I thought about it carefully, I thought the current situation was very strange. That’s a type 3 variant. A walking wasteland scourge. It is treated similarly to a natural disaster.
When capturing Old Picture in Area 47, we were able to put him to sleep by preparing dozens of mortars, a truckload of ammunition and explosives, and customized countermeasures against him. At that time, I keenly felt how ignorant a monster the Type 3 mutant was, and he was not even a War Boy, so he just walked into his deathbed, saying, “He’s calling me!” Unless there’s something wrong with his head…!
‘virus! You hit the guy with a fucking head problem! Somehow, my body became energized and I became a little crazy! ‘Isn’t this exactly the same as when I took the hormone pills?’
This is a sight often seen on the battlefield. Soldiers who rushed like berserkers before entering a deadly area by order, using doping, which was prohibited for use except for special operations due to the aftereffects. In fact, the way he fought braver because he knew he was going to die was very similar to the way I ran around the garrison alone looking for that guy.
‘…The virus is urging me, its host, to fight. What is Hyde doing? hey! Hyde! Take care of your hair! ‘This thing is broken!’
[—Ugh- —-What is this—-]
‘….Hyde?’
[–In my house—-Like a dog—-Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa of of —-!]
Hmm. Come to think of it, Hyde was a resident inside that head. At first glance, it seemed like there was chaos. I should have noticed it earlier when things got quiet.
Thanks to this, the virus was able to face off against this crazy, murderous variant single-handedly, so if it had intended to kill the host, the virus’s goal was on the verge of being successfully achieved. Hmm, I guess I lost a lot of blood and my head got cold. Or maybe it’s because Hyde is desperately defending himself.
Anyway, now that I’ve returned from being a beaten idiot to an anemic Professor Park, I need to think about it a bit.
I’ve tried to hit people ignorantly, whether willingly or unwillingly. The result, as you can see now, was a disaster.
‘No matter how human-like they are, both W and this guy are type 3 mutants. He’s like the embodiment of a trauma born from someone’s memory. Like Old Picture, he has a weakness and it will definitely be revealed somewhere.’
Old Picture constantly projected his memories onto the other person and openly demanded their weaknesses.
W explained his past to us in great detail without even asking. As if I just wanted you to know.
Trauma is ultimately a huge wound left on the mind. Type 3 variants appear to be creatures stuck in that negative moment and trying to escape from it in some way. Since that guy is also a Type 3 variant, he must have a weakness based on that memory.
‘I kept emphasizing the word ‘claws’. It’s not just a word that expresses combat power. When I tricked him with a grenade prank, he actually liked it, thinking it was a claw. Show me more claws… Is there something you want to see from me? Do you want me to be a tougher opponent so that I can get him into more trouble?’
I felt like I didn’t know anything. An enemy who doesn’t even break a sweat compared to me who is completely devastated. The guy’s actions as if he had nothing to do with W’s plans and the guy’s statement that he had been watching me for a long time.
“…Are you dealing with someone at your level? Hey tiger. “You don’t plan on killing me, do you?”
At those words, the bastard’s footsteps, which I had been unable to stop no matter what I did until now, stopped.
Even at a glance, it looks like he is full of winning spirit. They beat him up, cornered him, and urged him to show his claws and push him away.
He wanted me to be stronger than I am now. I attack at a level that won’t kill me, as if doing so will help me grow.
“You’re playing with me. No, more accurately, I can say that I am molding it the way I want. Corpse tiger. Do you really believe in nonsense like that when a person is cornered, he or she develops superhuman strength? When pushed to the limit, a person awakens, like in a cartoon, and exerts powers that are several times their usual strength. “Do you believe that?”
No matter how much I thought about it, this was all I could think of. He was impressed by my gameplay and was pushing me, expecting something from me.
“…Did I give too many hints?”
“okay. He was screaming for help. If you are frustrated, go ahead and do it. There are a lot of people in the Raptor Society and they are incredibly powerful. Why are you trying to raise a guy like me when you could just go there right now?”
“Well, no. I completely missed the mark. Professor Park.”
‘It means that the back is wrong and the front is right. It’s not a complaint like Hoseungsim, but you’re saying you were sincere in trying to strengthen me for some purpose, right?’
If you look closely, each of the Type 3 mutants had a dark corner.
Like Old Picture, the ultimate in depression, or the ever-scraggly W, or now a bipedal corpse tiger that bangs on a person’s head like it’s steel and wants it to become strong without breaking.
“Professor Park, you have the unique movements of a soldier. “Where are you from?”
In any case, the guy was speechless. That means that my side, which is still leaking blood, has had time to stick together, and if I adjust it well, it will provide enough time. There is no need to refuse the answer.
“….14.”
“I experienced it perfectly. “I think I picked the right person this time.”
“‘This time’… then. Has anyone played with something like this before me?”
“It is not appropriate to say that I played with it. “It was a test, a teaching, and a process for progress.”
“…Tearing the body and breaking the head?”
“Even if the fruit complains of the pain of peeling, you can’t help but peel it.”
I accepted his words roughly and took out another first aid patch from my pocket and attached it to my side. The guy didn’t do anything to stop him.
“…What makes you want to do that? Let’s talk. “If you don’t plan on killing them, you can accept the teachings you want.”
“There’s no need to do that. Because you are almost finished. An upright person. A person who can rush at an opponent with all his claws, even if he faces death in any situation. I was wandering around this dreary world hoping to meet someone like that. Someone who is upright and stronger than me. “If I didn’t have one, I needed to create one and meet him.”
“…when we meet. “Since we feel the same way, are you planning on asking me to be your friend?”
Noho shook his head.
“no. Quite the opposite. When I finally meet him again, he will test me again. Am I really different from the original from the past? If I was born with such deep regret, would I have truly overcome that ugly essence?
Buru recalled the original memories that made up his soul.
****
A person who wanted to be more extraordinary than anyone else, hiding his ugly and timid inner self.
He was the commander of the 42nd Special Operations Group. A great commander who achieved wealth and honor after successfully completing and surviving numerous operations.
However, the person in question just wanted to run away out of shame every time such a false name rang in his ears.
Because while everyone was running forward, he was the one who turned back.
He actively took advantage of the sacrifices of his allies. He took the safest position and tried to survive by choosing the easiest opponent, even though he had better skills than anyone else.
As a result, the unit members have already changed several times. A lonely commander with no comrades left to discuss battlefield memories.
Instead of carrying a colleague with a broken leg and running away with him, he left him in a trench where a machine gun was mounted. His last spark was extinguished with the sound of a machine gun, and he was able to survive.
When you are isolated in enemy territory without supplies. When everyone else was starving, he was able to survive by maintaining his stamina with the food and water he had hidden from the beginning.
No matter how many times he promised to be with them, he always made the same choice when faced with the fear of death. Unbearable shame. guilty. I wasn’t asking for any merit or anything. I was just struggling to live. Why do people praise and reward cowards who survive instead of comrades who die?
“…Grrr.”
Whenever he shuddered at his own misery, he would always visit the warehouse on one side of the garrison.
A Bengal tiger the size of a house, but its bones remain thin due to being confined for a long time.
This guy came down to look for food and was caught in a trap. I thought I could get more support if I skinned it and sent it to my superiors as a gift, so I just kept it until I could find an expert.
“Keuuuu. “Kwaaagh!”
Clap! Clap, clap, clap!
Even though I hadn’t eaten or watered for days, I was completely lost in the eyes of the guy outside the iron bars who was trying to bite me. Uprightness that disregards life. Why were the looks of hatred so comforting? Only through this beast could I receive the proper treatment I deserved.
The butcher was kicked out, and the tiger behind bars stayed in the warehouse. Although I was happy to see those eyes of hatred, I wanted to watch the moment when they lost their light and went out. In the end, at the moment of death, that beautiful beast will also struggle uglyly toward life. In this way, I will prove that I am not wrong, that my actions are close to human nature.
****
“But Buru. “That great tiger did not extinguish his hatred until the end of his life.”
The last memory of the person who became his original. A survivalist so self-hatred that he can’t even remember his own name.
“There was an enemy air raid, and although he worked hard to survive, he was ridiculously close to being hit by fragments of a bomb and dying. He ran toward the warehouse, clutching his bleeding stomach. I don’t know why. “Did he just want to prove his innocence until the last moment, or did he just run to a place where he found comfort out of habit?”
There he meets his end. In response to the sharp claws of the tiger, which generously showered him with the criticism and hatred he longed for.
“Buru…. That old Daeho only thought of one thing. I will kill the author who imprisoned me here. If only I could sink my claws into his neck just once! I’m satisfied with that. And the moment the human leaned against his cage, bleeding, Buru knew that the time had come. The Daeho’s front paws, which had not eaten anything, were already lifeless and miserable, to the point where his vision was blurry. “So much so that I can push my entire front foot through the narrow gap in the bars, so much so that I wouldn’t even be able to put my toes in the gap under normal circumstances.”
A man bleeding and shaking. A flashing claw was caught around the man’s neck and pulled mercilessly.
“The last thing the man saw with his head cut in half was Dae-ho, who was practically a corpse, looking down at him. His bones are pitifully thin. However, his eyes are brightly shining and he falls down as if he is satisfied! At that moment, he felt unbearable misery and realized. “Oh, I didn’t want to see that beast broken.”
It was a moment of proof. Proof that his life, which everyone envies and praises for doing well and surviving well, is wrong. Proof that there are people who exude something other than fear in the face of death, like his colleagues who rushed to their death!
At the moment of death, his fingertips touched the upright corpse of the tiger he had envied. And the virus that began to take over the host’s body began to attract the body of the target that remained more clearly in the host’s memory than anything else…
The professor felt dumbfounded as his flashbacks continued quickly.
“Now wait a minute. Then, what is your goal?…”
“Yes. I want to experience the fear of death once again. A death that cannot be resisted. In that absolute fear, will I once again run away like the man of the past? Will we fight back like Daeho? Did the man truly overcome his ugly nature at the last moment, or did he simply find comfort? I did a lot of really monstrous things to prove it. Sometimes I throw myself into a crowd of hundreds of armed humans, and sometimes I rush at a seemingly ridiculously strong type 3 mutant. You also attacked people called raptors. I just realized that not everyone was who I wanted. The human group was too weak. My friend, Type 3, was clearly powerful enough to kill me, but there was no will in his eyes. It’s just a big inanimate object that reacts mechanically. Raptors… I thought they could be a replacement, but I wasn’t satisfied with them.”
Jerk. Jerk.
The skull of the great tiger, with its flames fluttering, approached me.
“What I want is an opponent. Like the tiger who threw everything away for just that one moment that day, a being who can truly remain detached even in the face of the fear of death. I’m talking about a being who will push me and give me the fear of death. Even now, there must be a place for me to die somewhere. I am not invincible, and I cannot deal with all the endless waves of enemies. However, facing death in groups is not satisfying. Like that guy, I want just one strong person to project everything on me. There were people who were aloof from death, but they were unable to overcome their limitations and simply died. There were people who reached the borderline of type 3, but they were just half-corpses stuck in the past. No one has been able to provide me with a satisfactory level of adversary.
Before I knew it, the skull of the bastard had come so close that the beast’s stinging scent was immediately apparent. There was no expression, but I felt it. The guy was truly happy.
“After failing so many times, I finally found you. One who moves forward, not backward, amidst the pain and fear of countless deaths. A person who has already begun to break away through his own power and yet his uprightness has not been broken! I finally found it! “The most perfect ingredient to become my opponent!”
The professor quietly took a step back, leaving him speechless. I took enough time to stop the bleeding, and like a type 3 mutant with unstable ego, he likes to talk about himself, so I was able to hear enough about his origins and past history.
The problem was that the parts that could be considered defects and weaknesses in that memory were absurd.
‘The goal is to prove yourself. You want to experience the fear of death, but the target must be a single entity that meets the standards you set. Are you asking me to prove whether I’m a coward or brave? In the end, you have to fight 1v1 and defeat them to be satisfied! ‘There is such a masochist!’
The bigger problem is that they targeted me as the target. No matter how much I looked at it, it didn’t seem like he would let me go easily, as I could feel the desperation in the way he spoke, as if he was going to propose marriage right away.
Sugaak-
It slowly approached me, who was backing away, and took out its claws.
“Struggle as hard as you can and increase your courage through hardships. It won’t take long since you’ve already proven yourself to me in many ways. “Maybe we can move on to the final step right now.”
“The last step… what if it is?”
“I have to die. Shouldn’t I die to be reborn as a strong and perfect opponent? Even now, only a part of it has become very unstable, and if it is completely reborn as type 3… Ugh. It’s exciting. It’s fun! “I can’t stand it!”
“!!!”
‘It means killing them in the end!’
Sneak, sneak, sneak!
The speed of stepping back became faster. I can’t believe there will come a day when I hear a powerful old man say things like ‘I can’t stand it’ to me. I wasn’t coming here!
I took a step back and looked around frantically. Something useful. There’s something that can take this guy off…!
Quack!
‘Hey!’
The moment I heard the sound of the creature’s hind feet digging into the ground, I roughly ripped off the door of a nearby car and threw it, and then flew towards the other side of the creature with all my might.
“Are you running away? Are you still trying to escape your predestined fate?”
“Just let me go, you crazy idiot! “I’m probably going to mutate soon anyway, so all I have to do is wait until then!”
Sugaak-!
“The wait has been too long! Give up and quietly put your head down! “I will allow you to be reborn as my own adversary!”
Quack!
“Ugh! Fuck that bullshit! A damn old furball masochist yandere corpse man! “Don’t woo me with crazy attributes that won’t be accepted in any industry!”
I ran toward the outside of the garrison, throwing back all the debris I could get my hands on.
The only thing I learned from my conversation with him was that even if I ran away, there was no need for him to hit the rear of the Area 47 reinforcements. Because this corpse tiger came here after me in the first place.
‘The jumping speed is similar! If we take the guy out of the garrison like this and take the time, Ian Ezel’s team will clear the upper part, and since there are no snipers, the garrison troops will have some free time by pushing out the enemy, and if that happens… my allies will come to save me! Just holding on to this guy is enough for one person! Speaking of cancer-’
Suddenly-
“Uuuuuuuu!!! God!”
The professor looked at his hair being cut into clumps by its claws and prayed earnestly. Please let support come while I am still alive.
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