Clearing the Game at the End of the World Chapter 89

Chapter.7 Masquerade Ball (5)

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Noon. Briefing begins at 1205 o’clock.

“Let’s go, prop team and stage team! “Are you finished?”

“Props team! clear!”

“Stage team! “There is still bullet scar work to be done in Area C!”

“There is no time left, so I authorize the use of live ammunition! Please wear a silencer and finish within 5 minutes!”

Since the guy named Jack from the example is nowhere to be seen, it looks like he was really only acting as a messenger.

“Oh there! Actors! “When you’re ready, come this way!”

The person leading the crowd at the center of the commotion was a man with a dirty look, holding a megaphone and shouting as if he were filming a movie.

“nice to meet you! “My name is Lee Sang-guk, who is in charge of directing this play!”

A man making a fuss and extending his hand as if to shake hands. When the professor and his companions glared at him with stern faces and did not accept his greeting, he sheepishly withdrew his outstretched hand.

“Haha, this is rude. Since the play was just around the corner, it was time for the actors to immerse themselves in their characters, and I guess I was right. It was a small group of opposing forces rescuing Old Picture, who played a hostage role, from the enemy, right? I like that blunt and cool-headed look! As expected, it’s professional! “I am truly moved to plan a play that will go down in history with such great actors!”

‘This person doesn’t seem to know anything?’

After hearing Jack’s true intentions, I was acting like I was completely in enemy territory, but looking at the director’s reaction, he really seemed like a person who only thought about plays related to old pictures.

Knock knock.

[Rear / three / left and right / two / armed]

Vex informs Ian and me of the surrounding situation using the hand signals used in Area 45.

‘Three in the back, two on each side. Seven… Since we only checked what was visible, the number of people watching from behind the scenes would be twice that many. They’re not just watching us, they’re spreading out and watching everyone here. The majority of the director and production team must be civilians.’

Well, in a way, it’s natural. In order to create a stage that can fool the sensitive eyes of Old Picture, you need to be of average skill, and even if the executive department is filled with talented people who can fly and eat the meat of the Dome, there will not be that many people with the kind of talent to decorate the stage and plan the production. .

“Yes. “It’s a play that will go down in history… I came here without hearing the details, so in what way is it historic?”

“ha ha ha! I guess the news is late because you came from outside? Dom is already very excited about this incident. That giant monster is the specialty of Area 47 and has officially come under the control of the Dome! Raptor It will be a huge help in pushing back those marauding killers and rebuilding the old civilization! I have always said that one day, even on this blood-soaked land, the flowers of culture will bloom and heal the hearts of people stained with despair! “It’s indescribable that Lee Sang-guk will be the first to launch this great project.”

The director immediately responds to the words he glanced at. The professor was suddenly lost in his own world, ignoring the director who was praising himself and concentrating on sorting out the situation.

‘That’s how it’s known in the Dome.’

It seems that Dome’s leaders have only released some of the information about this project that is pleasing to the eye. If the play is successful, Old Picture will come under human control. Then the power of the dome will be strengthened! It must have been something like this.

‘Well, it’s already been a few years since the Old Picture was sealed in the center of Area 47. At that time, the Dome did its best to control the media, so there probably aren’t many people left who know the truth. No, it would be correct to say that people who know are keeping their mouths shut to avoid Dom’s stern gaze by looking at the atmosphere.’

Most of the connectors used in the dome are minor copies of the Gedroitz Company’s connector, so it would not be surprising if they had installed their own backdoor to control the media. People who are wise enough to know the truth probably understand what it means for Dom to spread propaganda on such a large scale, so they are probably pretending not to know.

‘People who only accept external information selected from a well-controlled group and have become detached from the common sense of the wasteland. This is the reality of the dome.’

People who sacrificed their freedom and intelligence for an alien life called ‘peace’ in this crazy world.

This was the reality for most civilians who lived as parts of the dome.

In the end, this means that the director and the prop production team gathered here do not know that the monster approaching here is a crazy monster that has killed more than three people.

“20 minutes before rendezvous!”

“Oh my! Look at my mind! Sorry, my long-time wish is coming true, so I got excited without even realizing it! “Get the script first!”

“script? “I received it 20 minutes before the start. Are you telling me to memorize it all?”

“It’s not exactly a script, it’s just an explanation of the situation! You can act accordingly according to the situation. Is it possible? “Because I’m a professional!”

Frown!

On the other hand, the director winks with a cheerful expression.

The professor seriously wondered if he should punch that messy, mustache-filled mouth.

‘Did I think wrong? Is this not a civilian director, but a spy sent by the executive branch to kill us? They suddenly bring you in and tell you to act out a war, without even giving you a single line and telling you to just ad-lib after seeing the situation? Is this the director?’

It will be one of two things. Either the director in front of you, who you said was an idiot, is really an asshole. Or maybe we were so prepared that no matter what we did, we just had to wait in front of the old picture and the situation would take care of itself. The dome friends weren’t all that shabby and idiots, and judging by the piles of used cement bags and tools in the back, it seemed likely that they were the latter.

“Hey… Director Lee?”

“Yes, actor?”

“Still, I wish you could explain it briefly. Even if you do it yourself, you still need to know how it will work.”

“Well, it’s all written in the script, but it’s good. Communication between actors and directors is also important in making a great movie!”

Director Lee Sang-guk opened the script while still maintaining excited tension.

“Ego! Here’s the explanation! Act 1 [Encounter]!”

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***

#One. meeting.

Characters: Hepburn Bex Ian.

(Noon. Bright lighting. The three opposing forces are running on the stage. They hide in a narrow alley to avoid the enemies and encounter refugees who have not yet realized the situation.)

“Whoa whoo! ” Bex a few minutes left!”

“Four minutes! Hepburn, we still have plenty of time, so why are we running?”

“You guys can’t act as well as me. It’s better to pant slightly than to pretend to be tired for no reason. “It’s the third alley past the destroyed convenience store, one by one… This is it.”

Sigh!

Arriving at the alley marked in the script in advance, the three of them took a breath and observed a huge fleshy monster in the distance with colorful shoes covered all over its body like scales.

“Let me explain one last time. First of all, Old Picture was born from the memory of a family head who didn’t even know he was dead. The exact cause of death could not be determined by the dome, but it is presumed to be shock. As you can see, I have a habit of collecting shoes, which is fine until the illusion is broken, but if something seems strange, I immediately take off my shoes and throw them away. If you stay still, they will cut off your entire ankle and take it away. “Ian, you lost your shoes while running away, right?”

“hmm? Ah, now that I think about it, I kicked the tentacle that was sticking to the outside of the buggy, and my foot got stuck inside and my shoe came off.”

“I was lucky. When he acquires new shoes, he has a habit of first stopping and examining them. “We could have bought time until the bomb was thrown and the building collapsed.”

“If it doesn’t come off…”

“That flabby flesh of the guy can harden when necessary? “It would have sucked you in as if it were burying you in cement, or it would have swung its hardened tentacles and crushed your entire legs and only taken your shoes.”

Cheodeok Cheodeok

Jjieeeeing-!

“Ugh! “What on earth is this that makes it ring like this?”

“Close your eyes and focus on your headache.”

“Do it Hepburn! “I saw a glimpse of something and then it disappeared!”

“I enjoyed it. “This mental wave that the Old Picture periodically rings is the memory of the host.”

[I saw it too. A man holding the hands of his wife and son as they pass by a convenience store. It looks like an analog photo that was just developed?]

‘Yes. That’s why his name became Old Picture.’

The professor didn’t really pay attention, but he had a general idea. It must be a memory of the host holding the hand of his family and passing in front of the convenience store as usual.

Before we knew it,

the old picture was about two blocks away.

“There are three mannequins hanging in front of the guy’s main body. Can you see it?”

“Uh… wait a minute. “What I saw in that mannequin monster’s memory…”

“It’s exactly the same. That was given to him as a gift by the members of the inspection department when they were imprisoning him here. Old Picture is a being that lives to complete the memory of ‘me, my wife, and my son walking down this street’ in the host’s memory. That doll is a consciousness that embodies the host, wife, and son who are the center of those memories. “Physically, its body is that shoe chunk of flesh, but what it cherishes most are those three mannequins.”

“wait for a sec. If Dom gave you that mannequin as a gift… what did you use before that? Old Picture must have existed in this area even before the dome was tamed, right? “If you say it right, it’s his mission to wander around here.”

“It did. So before this model garden was built, it was very violent. “I used people instead of dolls.”

He has good eyesight and good eyesight, so he is certain in this regard. There is quite a distance, and the scene shown by the spirit wave in the old picture is really only visible for a moment, like the moment the shutter is pressed. I can’t believe you recognized that right away.

“person?”

“okay. When I found someone who looked like the three people in my memory, I immediately smashed all their abduction joints and walked along these streets together like a doll until I died. Then, when they die and decay, they no longer resemble the characters in their memories, so they throw them away and look for new dolls. It was almost like a disaster, but fortunately, Area 47 was also very chaotic at the time, so if you searched a little, you could find a lot of fresh corpses. “The Dome’s inspection department succeeded in preventing his indiscriminate killings by throwing new bodies at the time the corpses he was carrying were decomposing.”

When I first arrived at Area 47, the area my mother showed me, saying there was something I needed to know, was so terrible that I wondered if it would be like this if there was a demon world. A living, breathing street where the fragments of a collapsed building are pulled together by flesh and blood, and the half-destroyed street in the aftermath of war is restored with the body of a bastard, just like the memory. When I saw the [GX 25] convenience store sign made of tendons pulsating in time with the guy’s heartbeat, I couldn’t hold it in and threw up.

When I briefly expressed my impressions of the creature before it was taken care of, the faces of the group members who were trying to keep calm expressions became even more wrinkled.

“So you’re saying we have to act like clowns in front of that guy?”

“yes?”

“Hehehehe that’s awesome. Hey, can I just smoke one cigarette?”

“It will work? Ian Because you feel like a character from a war movie. It would be better to smoke a cigarette. “I smoke cigarettes and wear those sunglasses I always wear.”

“You want me to play a soldier who is being routed? “Wouldn’t it be awkward?”

“Anyway, the host of the old picture was a civilian, so why? You might be more familiar with the way it looks in movies. One thing to keep in mind is that you should never be afraid of the guy and treat him fairly. It’s okay to act violently as long as you don’t hurt that damn doll. “Like a soldier who meets a civilian walking foolishly on the battlefield.”

Although he has the appearance of a monster, in the memories of old pictures, he is nothing more than an ordinary family man, so if he shows signs of being scared or cowering, his illusions will be shattered and he will start running away.

“But if it moves based on the host’s memories, wouldn’t it immediately go berserk since we, who have never seen it, have no memories?”

“Seeing as other District 47 people have passed through the central district so far, it seems my memory is not so accurate. Originally, people’s memories had a tendency to be edited at will. It’s even a vague memory of a dead person. “I think they understand if it makes some sense.”

“A war situation that you have never experienced in your life?”

“…That’s why you said you ‘seem’ to understand. “I’m not sure.”

This was also the part I was most worried about. You’re walking hand in hand with your family and someone you’ve never seen passes by? Of course it can happen. I don’t even know the faces of all the people I pass on the street.

What if someone passes by with a gun? It must be strange. However, if you don’t panic and are persuaded well, this can be easily overcome. When I looked at the community, I heard that there was a time when people went into the wasteland costume and said it was cosplay, but they ignored it. If the guy had been quiet instead of shooting when he got interested in Ian and Bex’s buggy, they might have gotten away with it.

However, it is a war situation that destroys the streets that are the source of memories. I honestly wasn’t sure if his conscious mind would understand this and move on.

‘it will work out somehow. Because his memories can’t be detailed at all. No, except for the actions I consciously took, I probably only vaguely remember them. My last memory of seeing the play last time, if that’s true….’

Jjieeeeing-

“Keuuuuuu! Hey professor! I saw it too! “Three people sat at a table in front of a convenience store!”

“It’s the beginning! remember! “Just treat it like a real soldier and never hurt the doll!”

Cheodeok- Cheodeok-

Tagak Tagak Tagak Tagak.

The sound of something large and wet moving a body and the sound of light footsteps echoing on the sidewalk blocks. The point where the guy’s doll heads to the convenience store according to his usual memory.

This was the beginning of the stage.

gulp.

“Hey, I’m going in, so pretend to take cover!”

“Leave it to me!”

“Shit. “This is the first time I’ve been this nervous holding a gun full of blank bullets!”

Crash!

The professor, who ran out of the alley with a nervous expression, looked around quickly and looked very surprised when he saw the mannequin from the Old Picture.

“How can this be…. a civilian? hey! “What are you guys doing here?”

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeuckee

“Ugh!”

A mental wave from an old picture that penetrates your mind in an instant. The image of a man in military uniform overlaid on the image of a family of three on their way to a convenience store! If you can’t hold on and hesitate here, it will explode!

[Who are you? Is this like training?]

A middle-aged male mannequin looking around and clicking his mouth as if assessing the situation.

‘Okay, first of all, he came into the situation! From now on, you just have to do whatever it takes to keep the word [nonsense] from appearing in his head!’

To achieve this, it is not enough for the professor to simply speak out loud.

When the professor glances at the sky and makes a wink, Bex quickly picks up his watch from the alley and shows it to him.

Crackling – Chizzing –

A broadcast suddenly starts from somewhere and echoes throughout the alley.

[Fellow citizens. This is the Ministry of Public Safety and Security’s Civil Defense warning and control center. Issue an actual air raid warning. At the current time, an actual air raid warning is being issued throughout our country.]

Eeeeeeenn-! Eeeeennn-!

Instead of the siren of a police car that you normally hear, the sound of a siren that sounds like something you’ve heard during a disaster evacuation drill, which sounds like it’s coming from an old radio, adds to the realism, and both the main body of the old picture and the mannequin are visibly shaken by the warning broadcast echoing throughout the street. showed.

=====

1230 o’clock.

#2 Civilians and opposing forces isolated in the middle of war

(The sharp sound of sirens and the clear sound of mortars can be heard in the ears. The protagonist attacks a family of civilians who were walking down the street without knowing anything and pulls them out of the fire.)

=====

‘ It is impossible to implant new memories. Because the memory itself is the body of the bastard. Create a situation by filling in trivial details between the hazy memories! No matter what happens, you must not escape from the memory of this fundamental bastard!’

siren. Military uniform. It’s a well-made situation, but it’s not something he remembers. First I had to get him back on track.

– Piyuuu!

[Please stop operations and evacuate customers from crowded places such as theaters, playgrounds, terminals, and department stores.]

Kwaaang!

‘Nice timing!’

At the right time, a mortar hit the building next door and debris began to fall.

“Shit! Civilians there! Get under that table! “Get hit by shrapnel!”

The professor roughly grabbed the arm of the female mannequin and the short mannequin and pulled them down the table.

“What are you doing! “You don’t come in too quickly!”

Paang!

An image of a professor pushing two mannequins under a table and unfolding a parasol.

[Uh, uh…]

The mannequin of the man who was hesitant came and sat down under the table, and then appeared to embrace the other two mannequins, and at the same time, the main body of Old Picture, which had been noticeably bubbling, quieted down.

‘For now, we have passed one hurdle. His memory walks down the streets of memory with his family. Since there is only a small amount left, maintain the behavior as you remember and instill a plausible situation.’

First of all, the first starting point. ‘I sit at the table in front of the convenience store and relax with my family.’ clear.

When the professor gave a signal to Ian and Bex, who were waiting in the alley, the two advanced with the stoic demeanor of a former special forces unit, took cover in a flower bed near a convenience store, and began to stand guard.

[What happened. A sudden air raid warning, does this mean there’s a war?]

[Honey!]

[Ugh! dad! I’m scared!]

The voices of different adult men, women, and children coming out of the mouths of old pictures. This is evidence that he was completely immersed in the situation and began to fill in the blank spaces in his memories.

“Shit. They’re such stupid civilians. What island have you been living on? “Did you not see the news?”

[News…s?]

“Yes, news! It’s been a mess since yesterday! North Korea launched a nuclear weapon! “War has broken out!”

Old Picture’s huge body shrank at the professor’s words.

[Now that I think about it… I heard a rumor that a strange disease was spreading and the situation was not good…]

‘It’s the host’s memory. ‘I’m piecing the situation together.’

“Leader! I do not have time! “If we don’t get to the escape point in time, we’ll be surrounded by them and become isolated!”

“I know! Hey civilians, did you hear that? I’m sorry, but I can’t afford to look into your situation. If you want to live, follow us.”

[Huh, where are you going?]

At Old Picture’s words, the professor pointed with his finger to the straight road. The road he always took.

“Going there. We’ll provide cover, so you can take care of your family. “Hold my hand tightly so you don’t lose it.”

(The main character shakes hands with the civilian head of the family. A little trust in the military and a strong will to protect his family begin to bloom in the head of the family.) The

professor held out his hand, recalling what was written in the script.

“Sergeant Hepburn, Republic of Korea Army.”

[Republic of Korea Army Sergeant… Hepburn?]

The professor’s words suddenly make me jump! It’s an old picture that freezes.

‘Eek! There is a settings conflict! ‘I should just call him Professor Park!’

The professor started by putting pressure on his thighs. When the word “nonsense” comes out of that guy’s mouth, he runs and dies, runs away. Turn around even now…

While the mannequin tilted its head for a moment, the bubbling Old Picture seemed to understand on its own and became quiet and held the hand the professor held out. .

[Actually, 70% of domestic residents are foreigners with citizenship, so there must have been changes in the military. I am Kim Do-jin, and this is my wife and son. Thank you very much.]

The professor was sweating coldly on the inside and smiled trustingly on the outside.

“We will have to help each other if we want to survive.”

The play had only just begun, but the professor already felt like crying.

***