Episode 135:
There were many emotions that Song In-myeong did not understand, but among them, ‘sacrifice’ was very vague.
What is sacrifice?
‘Not taking care of one’s body for the sake of a certain thing or person. ‘People get caught up in wars, accidents, etc. and lose their lives or get injured.’
Results that are inherently related to human emotions do not give clear values like science or mathematics, causing controversy, so it was difficult for Song In-myeong, who was particularly insensitive to emotions, to understand the true meaning of his sacrifice.
He understood love as ‘an irrational and discriminatory judgment that causes obsession and stabilizing effects.’ He understood justice as ‘an unclear violence supported by laws that prevent chaos in society.’ I have created all kinds of works based on that topic, but this topic was too vague.
How could Song In-myeong understand a person like Lee Jae-heon?
“Detective Song In-myeong. Do you know where Detective Hong Gyeong-jun is?”
“….”
“There seems to be a dangerous person nearby. “I found a bloody knife and gloves…”
How can I sympathize with them and make them out of materials of the same level as mine?
“Song In-myeong?”
“wow.”
“….”
“That sucks.”
In the world he sees, there is nothing that is not material, and Song In-myeong was able to create his own world with everything. However, being an artist means putting meaning into everything from materials to composition.
The man in front of me was a very desirable material.
“When you’re in a hurry, polite words come out.”
“….”
“Well, I already knew it, but when I actually heard it, I felt strange.”
“Song In-myeong.”
“You know, is that real?”
Even if I die and come back to life five times, I won’t be able to find material like you.
“They said they wanted to kill you.”
The corners of my mouth trembled from unbearable joy.
My head was pounding and the tip of my nose was sore, as if tears were about to come. The tight sensation welling up inside my eyeballs made my brain melt and I wanted to stamp my feet on the floor and cry or laugh. The extreme happiness tickled the tips of my hands and feet to the point of screaming.
“It got to this point that I wanted to save people. I was half crawling, covered in blood. “He acted like he was about to die.”
“….”
“…That’s very contradictory….”
Isn’t it cool?
“It’s terrible, isn’t it?”
Song In-myeong is a light sleeper, so if someone wakes up while everyone is sleeping, he naturally wakes up. He also heard a woman named Kwon Yeon-hee and Lee Jae-heon talking during the night.
Did you say that you harbor murderous intentions towards others regardless of your will? Jaeheon Lee was driven half-mad by a monster called the green algae monster. A victim who burns his own body because he cannot save others has the intention to kill against his will. You want to kill someone else.
Lee Jae-heon is clearly living with beliefs that Song In-myeong cannot understand, but
he says, “You know.”
At the same time, Song In-myeong has the instinct to understand and sympathize better than anyone else.
If I use this as a material, I will be able to create more artistic art.
“Isn’t he the real monster?”
“….”
“I wonder if in a few days, or even today, they are going to kill those students that you were hanging out with. huh?”
Song In-myeong decided to provoke this poor, stupid person.
It would certainly be fun to wait a little longer, build up a close relationship with Lee Jae-heon, and then gradually break it down and make him fall off the cliff himself, but for this material, I wanted to cut the chain and clean things up with him himself.
And it was no longer a situation that could be put off.
“It’s even more monstrous than the monster that’s trying to kill us now.”
The traces of me held by the monsters who are trying to kill me right now and that person full of sacrificial spirit. Lee Jae-heon found the explicit evidence that he left behind because he was half hoping that someone would notice.
Now, Song In-myeong had only three options left. First, since it is a world where fingerprint identification or blood tests are not possible anyway, we are wasting time by holding on to it. Second, they fight back against the charging monster. Third, blah blah blah blah.
However, in the first case, Song In-myeong’s art will one day be revealed, and then the range of art that Song In-myeong can show will be reduced. In the second case, I would of course dismiss it since I would die without ever being able to do any art that I could possibly achieve.
Third remaining.
“…Then, Mr. Lee Jae-heon.”
I am enjoying this moment to the point of death.
“Are you going to kill me too?”
“…What are you talking about….”
Lee Jae-heon’s expression calmly distorted. I don’t know how many times the tips of my fingers twitched from the confusion and sudden murderous intent. I felt like I knew it too, so my mood soared to the sky.
I know this because I have killed people many times. The intent to kill is closer to an instinct rather than an emotion. The only people under heaven who can suppress their instincts are not beasts, but because reason exists. Lee Jae-heon is enduring the rising murderous intent with nothing more than his own shallow reason.
So, if you lose your reason, if you go crazy with confusion.
“That thing you’re holding.”
You will trust your instincts, right?
I can enjoy the last piece of art, right?
“Because the owner is me.”
“….”
“I killed him. I don’t know what he saw. “I killed him.”
Well, you know how sweet murder is.
‘You said you’ve been to this world before, so you’ve definitely killed people before.’
I hope you don’t say no. So how have you been able to survive and act like a normal person while going so crazy?
And you know what?
“It must have been fun, right?”
I’m just like you.
You damn liar.
* * *
A detective must be quick to sense the situation and judge the situation.
Except for those who commit crimes accidentally, criminals have a different way of thinking from ordinary people. They committed the crime in a way that most people could not even imagine, and in order to put such criminals in the cage, the detective had to choose one of two methods.
Either learn how a criminal thinks, or acquire magical intuition.
Hong Gyeong-Jun was overwhelmingly the latter, and had been serving as a detective without any major problems, but that did not mean he was lacking in insight. He was the type of person who developed his insight based on intuition.
And recently, Hong Gyeong-jun noticed that student Seo Jang-hwa was anxious about something.
“Hey Song In-myeong! Song In-myeong, where are you, you bastard…!”
“Mr. Seo Jang-hwa, you must not leave your seat carelessly…!”
“Song In-myeong!”
Hong Gyeong-jun shouted in a trembling voice and looked at the back of Seo Jang-hwa, who had left his seat, but soon swung his wooden block at the monsters that were rushing towards him.
“…Such an embarrassment.”
– That’s right!
A noise that was very strange to say that a dog had been hit rang through the forest.
He learned how to deal with people, but he didn’t know much about how to fight beast-like monsters. Hong Gyeong-jun realized that he was gradually being pushed out by the actions of the monsters that were rushing towards him.
“Hong Gyeongjun…!”
Squeak!
“Wouldn’t it be better for us to run away too?”
Kang Min-ah hit the monster’s head with the back of the hammer and then kicked the monster in the abdomen, pushing it away. Although his own strength was not that strong, his skills seemed to be good, and the monster was staggering but unable to get up.
A grotesque monster that appears to be covered in colorful fabric and sewn together, yet surrounded by a translucent mud-colored slime. The monster’s shiny plastic button eyes, which made me feel nauseous just by looking at them, swiveled around as if they were not fixed. The short-cut tail trembles like a broken toy, but soon flutters like a flower petal.
Hong Gyeong-jun suddenly felt like he was going a little crazy.
“…It’s still difficult.”
Why does that bother us?
Why do you love us?
“Mr. Kim Ki-jeong, you are holding your legs properly.”
“Me too…! I can do this too! “You can do it!”
“I’m not criticizing you, just calm down.”
A sigh escaped and got caught at the bottom of my throat.
‘Why is the monster suddenly running rampant?’
I thought it was strange for a long time. Most of the monsters did not harm the survivors as long as they stayed still, but at random moments, the monsters would approach humans. To varying degrees, it was a common phenomenon to have great interest in the living.
No matter how much I thought about it, I had to assume there was some cause. This is what makes monsters excited.
Hong Gyeong-jun picked up a piece of wood and plunged it into the mouth of the charging monster.
Sigh!
“Hmm…!”
Kwaekkwak…!
It was quite painful to see the dog struggling and making miserable noises.
He neither liked nor hated dogs. When a fellow detective showed me that he was raising a dog, he remarked that it was cute, but that was it. This means that he was being polite to his co-worker’s family and was not specifically praising the dog in favor of it.
To Hong Gyeong-jun, a dog was just one of the animals that commonly exist on Earth, but the dog monster in front of him made even him feel a strange sense of strangeness.
“…Damn it.”
That is so pitiful.
It was also disgusting.
“I might go crazy, really.”
It wasn’t something he said with a specific target in mind, but a terrible police officer flashed through Hong Gyeong-jun’s mind. If he were that person, he would have welcomed Hong Gyeong-jun going crazy with both hands.
“Everyone… it would be best not to make eye contact if possible. So does the sound. Everything is irritating and disgusting, but those eyes are especially….”
“In the meantime, you are good at analyzing things. “Maybe that’s an occupational disease, too.”
Even when the doctor asked that question, I was distracted.
“It’s an occupational disease, that’s right. So, if possible, avoid eye contact with everyone.”
Those shiny button eyes were making his whole body tickle.
It feels as if a bug has crawled into my shoe, curls up in fear and tramples it as I move. The feeling of killing dozens of disgusting creatures, even though they are only tiny creatures, penetrates my brain. It feels like the corpse and skin are blooming from my spine.
The most vulgar and uncivilized thing in the world is the illusion that I am the soil of its life and death. It was never a pleasant feeling to have to feel sympathy while being sick of it all.
“…Whoop, whoop!”
Pow!
He swung his wooden pole wide and pushed away all the monsters that were flocking at him at once.
“Let’s go now. Let’s move. “We have to find Seo Jang-hwa!”
“I saw the way I was going…!”
“Take the lead now! Ha Seong-yoon and Kim Ki-jeong, please go in the middle!”
“Mr. Ha, what is really happening…!”
Still, perhaps because they were people who had survived for a long time, they understood Hong Gyeong-jun’s words very well, even for a civilian. It almost felt like I was with junior detectives.
‘But as expected, Kang Min-ah is surprising.’
After defeating the monster once again, he followed the leader and continued his thoughts.
Kang Min-ah had the stamina and strength of a commonly seen member of society. I don’t mean to belittle him, but he didn’t seem like he was the kind of person who could immediately put his brain into action and immediately show it in action. However, if he was able to remember where Seojanghwa flew while dealing with a flock of crows rushing upward, it wasn’t normal judgment.
‘Even the monsters looked pretty easy to deal with.’
His face was so pale that it didn’t fit the word ‘easy’, but he was trembling and was killing the monsters fluttering through the air with the hammer in his hand. I saw her deftly using the back of the claw hammer she was holding to drive it into the bird’s head.
It was an attack and defense suitable only for dealing with monsters, something that even Hong Gyeong-jun, who had dealt with many criminals, could not show. It was also capable of protecting at least two other party members.
“….”
“I can hear a sound from over there…!”
“Let’s keep moving.”
Hong Gyeong-jun is a police officer, and especially a detective, so he learned many tips from his seniors. So, I automatically decided that Kang Min-ah must also have learned that kind of attitude from someone. Even if you don’t teach them directly, there is definitely something you can learn by watching and listening to them.
And there weren’t many people who could tell Kang Min-ah, who was an ordinary office worker, such things.
“-die…!”
Jaeheon Lee.
“….”
“Die. I will kill him….”
“This guy is really crazy! “Stop it, damn it…!”
“Why did you do that, huh?”
A survivor of the underworld who
spit out blood as he tried to endure being turned into a monster. I was struggling to remain human and watch the things within my walls, which were equally human.
“Why why why why…!”
A cruel yet kind person.
“….”
“Wow, it’s awesome.”
Also, the person who sits down in front of him and laughs at him to his heart’s content as if he were watching a play.
“…What kind of situation is this really…!”
“It’s really a waste, isn’t it?”
“uh? uh? Hey hey… Song In-myeong. Hey hey! Song In-myeong…!”
Hong Gyeong-jun’s fingers trembled as In-young stood up and ran away in the blink of an eye.
He instinctively identified the enemy and the monster chasing him, and once again winced at the murderous gaze. This was because it was not possible to decide for a moment who would be more harmful to citizens.
Therefore, even when Seo Jang-hwa, who was holding Lee Jae-heon from behind, stiffened, and at that moment, Song In-myeong ran away from the spot. When Lee Jae-heon, who looks like a monster, follows behind him, and the silence that scratches his brain runs down his spine. That is until several people follow him again.
Hong Gyeong-jun.
“….”
Detective Hong Gyeong-jun could not move….
“…just now….”
I saw the death of the person I hated and admired in Lee Jae-heon.
Not life, but death.
(Continued in the next part)
