Episode 557
To be honest, Yoon Garam was not a person skilled in combat.
To begin with, Garam Yoon had weak stamina that left him out of breath even if he ran for even a short period of time. The strength I had developed by moving large and small flower pots was quite good, but the world behind the scenes was not so easy that it would be easy to survive just by lifting heavy things well.
In the other world, there was pressure that could easily break a person’s spirit, traps that were alive and strangling, and monsters that came out from unexpected places and committed murder with overwhelming power.
“I will try to approach Jeong Eun-woo.”
“Is that okay?”
“Yes, maybe…”
Nevertheless, the reason why Yoon Garam showed courage was not just because she could use fire.
I feel like this because I have people who depend on me.
“Of course, I’m not sure if I can show off my strength in such a humid environment… Still, if the monster I have to deal with is some kind of fish, I think it could cause quite a big blow when the fire hits it directly.”
“….”
“That… you said it was a fish, right? A person named Jeong Eun-woo….”
“Uhm, what?”
Do-yoon Han, who was quietly listening to Garam Yoon, smiled awkwardly and answered.
“It looked similar to me. Should I really say it’s a fishman…? “The original form of the person remains quite the same, but looking at things like the shell on the skin and the rakes on the hands, it clearly gave the impression of a creature that lives in the water.”
“Aren’t aquatic creatures sensitive to dry skin? Of course, I don’t know much about fish, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a healthy fish with dry skin.”
“Maybe so? Even though I don’t know much about it… Even if it’s not a fish, it hurts people too when their skin dries out. Especially if it was dried directly over a fire. “Fish skin always maintains moisture, perhaps even more than that of humans.”
“Then…”
“Yes, I think Boss Yoon is right.”
Han Do-yoon, who answered steadily, still had puffy eyes, but at least he seemed to be in much better condition than when we first met. He seemed to be regaining his strength just by talking to other people.
“The problem is that this is an aquarium.”
Han Do-yoon looked around and continued speaking.
“If you’ve come this far, you probably know that there’s water everywhere. “Right now, the water is calm right from the bottom we’re stepping on… and wherever we go, there’s at least a bucket of water.”
“A glass of water.”
“Oh, I meant the water tanks placed here and there in the hallway.”
Han Do-yoon smiled shyly at Ha Seong-yoon’s muttering and added an explanation.
“I’m always waiting at the ‘Friends by the Stream’ side, so I don’t really know what’s going on inside… All the theme zones have water-related terrain, and there are water tanks throughout the hallways. “Even the air is so humid that you have to see water everywhere.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who was fiddling with his earlobe, opened his mouth at Han Do-yoon’s words.
“…Then it certainly won’t be easy to inflict damage with fire. “Especially since it is a monster from the other world, even if it is injured by fire, it may regenerate quickly.”
“Yes, I think that’s probably true. People at the concert hall gave me various information… Although it was never expressed directly, there was a nuance that people who were mutated in that way had good regenerative abilities.”
To be precise, it was information that ‘the progression of mutation can be temporarily prevented when the mutated part is removed.’ In other words, even if the body was removed, the injury would only be temporary.
‘Probably, the mutated body comes back from where it was cut.’
After organizing his thoughts, Han Do-yoon continued.
“So, I think… I think I can easily regenerate a light hit.”
Han Do-yoon shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, if it’s fire-related, wouldn’t it be a little different? It is said that even the legendary Hydra will not regenerate if its severed head is set on fire. “It would be nice to have that kind of weakness.”
“I don’t think it’s possible.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who chimed in, looked back at Yoon Garam next to him.
“But is it really okay, Boss Yoon?”
Ha Seong-yoon realized that Yoon Gar-ram was not as brave as others thought.
Garam Yoon had a unique constitution and tastes, but other than that, he was no different from any other ordinary person. Moreover, even though he could handle threatening fire, that didn’t mean he was good at fighting.
So Ha Seong-yoon’s concerns were valid, but Yoon Gar-ram nodded quite resolutely.
“are you okay. Actually, I don’t know if it’s really going to be okay, but… I can try to do well.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Besides, we have to go to the concert hall anyway.”
In order to get to the concert hall, I had to somehow deal with Jeong Eun-woo, who was loitering around in ‘Friends by the Stream’.
“I don’t know if leaving Jeong Eun-woo as is could cause problems in the future.”
At least they had to get Jeong Eun-woo out of ‘Friends by the Stream’, but if possible, they had to catch him here.
“Did you say it moves through the ceiling? Eunwoo Jeong?”
“…I guess… I thought so.”
Do-yoon Han, who recalled the moment when Kim Ki-jeong died, answered with an awkwardly stiff smile.
“It suddenly popped out of the ceiling. According to Kim Ki-jeong… uh… there is a space inside the ceiling. It’s a completely black space. When I saw it, it just looked like an empty space, but yes. Kim Ki-jeong said that the monster seemed to be able to breathe comfortably only when it was in the space inside the ceiling.”
“….”
“Ah, wasn’t this what you asked? Yes yes um that’s right. There was a space inside the ceiling, so it seemed like I could freely move around the aquarium through it. “Remembering that Kim Ki-jeong was frightened when he heard the sound before the person Eun-woo Jeong came through the ceiling… I think he was probably able to physically move there.”
Han Do-yoon, who had said that far, kept his mouth shut for a moment and continued speaking after some time.
“…If you think about it like that, it could definitely be dangerous to leave it like this.”
“I don’t know what kind of trouble it might cause to other survivors.”
“Yes, that’s right. “It’s definitely too dangerous a monster to just leave like this.”
No matter how weak Kim Ki-jeong was, that was only when compared to other survivors. If you were to compare him to real adult men, he wasn’t that weak. At least that’s what Han Do-yoon thought.
But a monster that could tear such a normal person to pieces in an instant was enough to be a problem. The sound of the skin being torn apart and the bones breaking loudly still rang in my ears.
“….”
Do-yoon Han washed his face dry.
“Oh really… I think I’m going to have a nightmare.”
“I hope you’re still awake.”
“What if this feels like a nightmare?”
“You can change your dreams as much as you want.”
“Haha…”
Do-yoon Han, who was laughing awkwardly, asked hesitantly.
“…Can even dead people be brought back to life in the other world?”
Ha Seong-yoon blinked at his question and then answered with a smile.
“At least it would be much more likely than if this poor doctor directly brought a dead patient back to life.”
“is that so?”
“Boss Yoon said something similar earlier, but in this absurd world, the resurrection of a dead person could happen. “Isn’t that right?”
“….”
Han Do-yoon’s smile became distorted.
“…thank you.”
“you’re welcome.”
“I know it’s a ridiculous wish, but I feel much more at ease now that you’re saying these things. After all, I guess I’m a person who shouldn’t be alone…”
Han Do-yoon, who was laughing self-deprecatingly as if he thought it was funny, tried to make himself appear light. Han Do-yoon scratched the back of his neck and looked at Yoon Gar-ram and asked.
“Do you have any plans? In movies, they say that when three or more people gather together, it’s like a conspiracy. “Don’t we do that?”
“Hmm… If Han Do-yoon could tell us some of the geographical features of ‘Friends by the Stream,’ the plot would go much easier, right?”
“Oh, that’s right. So….”
Do-yoon Han did his best to inform Ha Seong-yoon and Yoon Gar-ram about the terrain of the ‘Friends by the Stream’. This was the place I had been the longest since coming to the aquarium, so I was able to remember even the smallest details in detail.
The problem was that the structure of ‘Friends by the Stream’ was too simple.
“…To summarize….”
Ha Seong-yoon said after hearing Do-yoon Han’s explanation.
“It’s just a hallway that’s as wide open as a square straw?”
“Yeah, whatever. There was water on the floor and the ceiling was a little cracked. The width of the floor is not so narrow that it can be called a ‘hallway’. Should I say it feels like I’m facing a mirror?”
“I don’t think there’s anywhere to hide this.”
“It’s definitely an advantageous space for monsters. “Right?”
If there had been a place to hide in the first place or if it had been a space advantageous to humans, Kim Ki-jeong would not have died like that. Han Do-yoon was trying hard to smile, but his face remained tired, as if he couldn’t shake off Kim Ki-jeong’s death.
Well, it’s been so long that we can already shake it off. The death of a person is not that easy, especially if it is the death of a housemate…
“….”
“….”
After a moment of silence, Garam Yoon smiled vaguely.
“…Well then, is there any point in making a plan?”
“Are you planning to attack head-on?”
“I think that would be better… because I said the monster’s speed was incredible. On the contrary, since we have poor mobility in the water, hiding somewhere is not possible…”
Yoon Garam, who was rolling his eyes, quickly continued.
“…It might be better to give you a formal greeting.”
That was quite a euphemism for saying, ‘I don’t know everything, I’ll just crush it with fire.’
* * *
―Quad deud deud!!
“…! Ugh!”
Jeong Eun-woo faced him with a lot of courage, but dealing with him was more difficult than Yoon Gar-ram imagined.
Yoon Garam, who barely managed to avoid Jeong Eun-woo, who was rushing towards him in an instant, confirmed that his original spot had been deeply dug up.
“Ah…”
Patter.
A stone fell from Jeong Eun-woo’s pale grasp as he missed his target.
“…Your hands are very strong.”
You scoop up the floor with your hands.
It was an insane amount of power that made it seem like I knew how he tore Kim Ki-jeong to death.
“No matter how much of a monster you have become, aren’t you being too violent? “I heard that even though he is the secretary of this party, he is quite gentle… I guess I misheard.”
“….”
“I don’t think you can answer.”
On the floor where Yoon Garam was, handprints remained as if the dirt had been scooped up.
The webbed hands made of living threads added to its strength and range, and it certainly seemed like it would be difficult to survive if caught in those hands.
‘…I was inside the water bottom of my friends by the stream just now, and although it may be Mr. Kim Ki-jeong’s body, there are no signs that it was eaten by the monsters in the water bottom. Han Do-yoon may be right that the monsters in the aquarium don’t seem to attack each other.’
It was said that monsters that eat human flesh live in the waterbed of ‘Friends by the Stream’. But despite all that, Jeong Eun-woo’s body was clean. Garam Yoon changed his mind about using the aquarium’s monster.
“It would have been nice if we could have had a conversation.”
Garam Yoon smiled awkwardly and placed his hand on the slightly damp wall.
And then.
“I’m… I’m not good at fighting.”
Hwaaaah!!
A bright yellow fire appeared on the wall.
The vivid yellow flames, as if they were pulsating with life, were so rich that it was breathtaking and even blocked the pitch-black hole in the ceiling. Garam Yoon willingly made eye contact with Eunwoo Jeong, who was observing me closely.
“…Do you feel like talking to me now?”
Otherwise, I think we’ll be in a bit of trouble.
(Continued in the next part)
