Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 136.4: Candle (4)

"Understood."

Ballantine took off the communicator.

I bowed my head slightly, thankful for his wise decision.

We exchanged a brief look, silently reaffirming our trust in each other.

"But what now? We still have to retrieve the meter."

"You have the data, don’t you?"

"Yes. That’s true."

"Let’s give up on it."

I looked around.

I already knew the area wasn’t too dangerous right now, but I did it to make a point.

"You never know what might happen here. If those big things over there suddenly decide we’re the enemy, our chances of survival are close to zero."

I wasn’t lying.

It was time to go back.

"Once, there was a protest. The hospital staff had locked the doors, trying to block angry patients and their guardians. And behind that closed door, through the glass, you could see a kangaroo just standing there."

I was still listening to the fanatic’s rambling.

To deal with her, I had to stay tapped in to her unstable psychology in real time.

As we walked down the slope, the fanatic disappeared beyond it.

At the same time, the looming shapes of monsters and the rift that had cast a shadow in front of us also sank below the ridge.

"People demanded its removal. That smelly, dirty, purposeless animal—get rid of it, they said. ‘Is this the hospital director’s personal zoo?’ I was standing in the crowd, and from there, I could see the kangaroo’s face. And when I saw it, it turned its head toward me—like a lie."

The fanatic kept spewing nonsense.

Still clinging to the hope of conversion?

What was even stranger was how she could talk like that without getting attacked by the monsters.

"It’s going to disappear soon."

The soldier known as Shin Hyung-taek spoke from behind.

"A final outburst. Candles burn brightest right before they go out, don’t they?"

It wasn’t something I knew about.

I’d never served in an erosion zone, never observed the ecology of the people left inside.

He was much younger than me, but maybe he was right.

He had probably walked this long, winding tunnel that looked like a fossilized snake dozens of times, watching people vanish inside the monsters.

If I ever got the chance, I wanted to ask him. But I probably never would.

Shin Hyung-taek looked toward Ballantine with concern.

"But that candle is contagious. I’m worried. What if that person’s affected by it?"

That’s when the fanatic laughed.

As much as I hated to admit it, it was a clear, pure laugh, not a single wrinkle of doubt in it.

"The kangaroo laughed. No, it was more like it forced a smile. Moving the dimple muscles it could barely use to smile at the people who were angry at it."

Song Yoo-jin, walking ahead of us, pressed her communicator switch and turned it off.

Apparently, she’d decided it wasn’t worth listening to anymore.

Shin Hyung-taek and Kim Ji-soo, following behind, turned theirs off too.

At some point, we had come down the steep slope.

In the distance, we could see the end of the tunnel winding like a snake.

Maybe it was okay to turn off the communicator now.

But suddenly, a strange impulse stopped my hand as I reached to switch it off.

The story was pointless, but I wanted to hear the end of it.

I wanted to hear what that woman—who looked like us but was no longer one of us—would say to the very end.

Maybe, like Shin Hyung-taek said, I just wanted to see that final flicker before the flame went out.

"That’s when I started to see people’s hearts."

I looked around.

No one reacted.

I was the only one who heard it.

I’d heard of Awakened who could read minds.

Not high-level Awakened.

Rare, low-level ones.

But even then, it was said to be like someone with 0.1 vision trying to read an eye chart without glasses.

Just like a nearsighted person can still make out the largest letter or symbol, they might sense a big general direction—but they wouldn’t be able to read the smaller ones below.

They were so rare, and the ability was so hard to verify, that researchers quickly lost interest in the mind-reading Awakened.

There were even cases of sensory-type Awakened lying about being mind-readers just to get out of dangerous field work, which only added to the skepticism.

"Of course, I can see your hearts too."

The fanatic didn’t even finish her sentence—

WUUUUNG WUUUUNG WUUUUNG WUUUUNG——

A strange, thunderous hum—unlike anything I’d ever heard before—boomed from beyond the ridge.

From the rift.

The moment I realized that, my mind went completely blank, as if all the color had drained out of it.

"...Khh!"

It was like the world flashed.

There was no light.

Just a dulling of consciousness.

And it wasn’t just happening to me.

"Urgh! Ghhhak!"

"Uuuh...! Uwehhh!!!!"

Vomiting sounds echoed in front and behind.

The Awakened who were with me.

Right in front of me, I saw Song Yoo-jin clutching her throat with both hands, gagging up stomach acid in agony.

Only two of us were still standing normally—Ballantine and me.

A single thought flashed through my head.

Waves.

The ripple of the rift itself.

Right then, the communicator buzzed.

"Everyone else keeps their hearts shut like locked boxes, but you two—your hearts were wide open."

The fanatic.

"So I came closer."

I ignored it and went over to Song Yoo-jin to check on her.

"You okay?"

"Ah, ahhh..."

Her eyes were unfocused.

She must have taken a hit I couldn’t imagine.

Thankfully, her disoriented pupils slowly began to refocus.

Still trembling in my arms, she mumbled.

"Fuck... I want to get out of here..."

A single tear slid down her scraped cheek.

Then she realized who I was and looked a little startled.

I pretended not to notice and checked on the others.

"You okay? Back there?"

"We have to go. Now."

Shin Hyung-taek wiped the vomit from around his mouth and moved ahead of me.

"The rift has started roaring."

"The rift is... roaring?"

"It’s a recently discovered phenomenon. Probably related to the movement on Jeju Island. No time to explain. Let’s move! The monster surge is about to start!"

I nodded and followed him.

Beyond my line of sight, something was moving.

People. No, fanatics.

Like lifeless husks suddenly brought to life, they started sprinting toward the rift in their ragged clothes.

I had no intention of understanding this madness.

Even less of explaining it.

The one who stopped me was my friend—Ballantine.

He wasn’t moving. Just standing there.

"Ballantine?"

He was staring at a tablet.

"Ballantine?!"

As I moved closer, the communicator buzzed again.

"That kangaroo must’ve thought of that place as home."

I turned off the communicator.

"...?"

No, it wouldn’t turn off.

Did that intense wave earlier damage the device?

I ignored it and kept walking toward Ballantine. The fanatic kept rambling.

"She thought the whole psychiatric hospital was like her mother’s pouch. That’s why she could force a smile through all the abuse and climb onto those two beer crates to crawl into her room when the sun went down."

Click click click.

I kept pressing the switch.

"Ah. Ah."

Tried the mic too.

No issue.

Maybe just a glitch.

"But you know... if that kangaroo were to see a real plain—not that narrow, shabby hospital full of mean people, but a plain without fences where she could run free—what would she do then?"

Luckily, I didn’t have to hear her answer.

I finally managed to turn off the communicator.

"Ballantine."

He was still staring at the tablet.

Even with my untrained eyes, I could tell the data being graphed from the fanatic’s measuring device was not normal.

Ballantine looked up.

"Skelton!"

I looked into his eyes.

And I found myself wondering.

Had he always had such shining, certain eyes?

"Skelton. Look at this data!"

He showed me the tablet.

"What is it?"

"This is not normal."

"You need to leave. Now."

"This is a massive discovery. Far beyond anything the developers of Necropolis ever imagined!"

"..."

I stayed silent.

He didn’t understand what the graph meant.

He’d said it himself.

That he had no idea how the data Deadman_working gave us worked, what principle it ran on, or what exactly it was meant to measure.

“Ha ha ha.”

And yet now, he was acting in complete contradiction to that.

“I think I get it. I think I really get it!”

“What are you trying to do?”

“We need to go. Now.”

Ballantine turned around, his eyes still glowing.

I grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to stop with just a hint of emotion.

“Go where?”

“There!”

Despite the physical resistance, Ballantine looked completely unfazed.

A chilling thought rose up inside me.

“...”

Has he gone mad?

Did his soul fly out of his body when the rift roared?

It happens all the time.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

People with no prior exposure who get hit by a high-level Awakened’s wave up close—some go insane, some just break down.

I knew that already. But I never wanted that to happen to anyone near me. To people I cared about.

“If you go, you’ll die.”

I let out a long sigh and lowered my head.

“Please... don’t go.”

I don’t usually beg.

Not since the day I knelt in front of the body of a family member who’d been killed by a monster, pleading with them to come back to life.

That was the last time I did something so desperate.

And now here I was, doing it again, even after I thought I’d let everything go.

A rough, calloused—but warm—hand grabbed mine.

“I’m scared of dying too.”

It was Ballantine.

When I looked up, I saw his face.

He was smiling.

That same gentle, kind smile as always.

And the moment I saw that smile, I had to revise what I thought.

It was just as hard to accept as believing he’d gone insane.

“But ever since the war started, I’ve never once stepped forward without being ready to die.”

He was sane.

The thought that he’d lost his mind—that was just a mistake. Or maybe just my wishful thinking.

“She alone isn’t enough. I need to calibrate something. I’m sure of it. This is going to be a historic discovery that’ll go down in the history of humanity.”

“You said you didn’t understand anything about the waves.”

“I didn’t. But suddenly, I think I do. The moment I experienced it, something just clicked in my head! That Deadman_working guy—that rude bastard—maybe he had a similar experience, too.”

“...”

“This thing... it ignores everything humanity thought it knew. I can’t explain it, but I need to see it. With my own eyes. I have to feel it and touch it myself!”

A shout rang out.

“Instructor Park Gyu!”

Up ahead, Song Yoo-jin was waving her arms.

Shin Hyung-taek and the others had already moved forward.

Watching them, Ballantine pleaded desperately.

“Please let me do this.”

“...Ballantine.”

“I’m begging you.”

Ballantine bowed his head.

“I don’t want to live as a plus alpha, a side character, forever.”

“...”

So that’s what it meant.

What the fanatic said.

Of course, I didn’t believe the fanatic’s delusions.

But I understood the heart of my colleague and friend, Ballantine.

He handed me the tablet.

“I think I need to tweak the equipment that woman has. There’s some data that has to be measured.”

“...Fine.”

Who wants to be a supporting role?

Who wants to be an extra?

At some point, we all believed we were the main characters of ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) this world.

“Promise me you’ll come back.”

“I can’t promise that.”

That’s just how he is.

“I’ll tell you who I really am. The real me, who I’ve kept hidden all this time. You probably don’t care, since I’m just some nobody—but I want to tell you anyway.”

Ballantine turned on his communicator and ran off ahead.

I turned mine on too, waiting to hear what he’d say.

“My real name is Kim Byeong-seon.”

He ran forward.

Leaving behind a friend who might never return.

I jogged after the others, the living.

“I made money running a webhard business. Got wiped out when torrents came around, but before the cops came after me for distributing porn, I was making a decent living.”

Shockwaves rolled out from beyond the ridge.

The surge had begun.

The monster horde was likely revealing itself one by one beyond our field of view.

“Pathetic life, huh? I knew it too.”

“That’s why I wanted to do something. That’s why I met John Nae-non, helped start PaleNet, and kept it running.”

“...But even then, I wasn’t the main character. But now I’ve got a shot!”

“Wow! That woman’s still alive! Whoa! The monsters are pouring out! I may have pissed myself a little, but what do I lack compared to her?! I’m going in! Keep your eyes on the tablet!”

[ For F. Sawyer, M. O’Connor, Byeong-seon K., and the lovely red one. ]

[ Welcome to the noisy city of death. ]

– If you’re a deadman, press Enter –

The entry message to Necropolis received a minor update.

“Hey. That guy in Necropolis named Byeong-seon. That’s the guy you came with, right?”

It was Woo Min-hee over the radio.

“Yeah.”

“Hm.”

“What?”

“He doesn’t seem like someone you’d hang out with.”

“What do you mean?”

“You went there to carve his name, didn’t you?”

“Who knows.”

“Life’s funny. Yoo-jin said the guy was completely burned up after catching the flame from the candle.”

A candle can pass its fire on.

By sharing its flame with the wick of another.

Looking back, it’s true that the fanatic woman passed her flame to the new candle—Ballantine.

But candles don’t only pass on fire.

They also give off warmth, and a bit of light to chase away the darkness.

That light... I can see it now.

Deadman423: Damn, Viva punks! Been ages!

Deadman139: Yo, these bastards still hanging on. You guys run out of food yet?

Deadman3215: Is it true this winter’s gonna be brutal?

Deadman471: Dongtanmom’s dead, right...?

Deadman8821: Kyaahooooo~~~~~!!

Deadman118231: 42-year-old male~ Likes drinking, stubborn, moody~ Looking for someone to raise me~

Deadman3321: hihihihihihihihi

Deadman7723: That unfunny asshole still around? That Skelton whatever.

...

...

Necropolis and Viva! Apocalypse! are now connected.

Two worlds that once seemed destined to run in parallel forever are now bridged.

There are still too many uncertainties, mountains to climb—but we’ll face them, little by little.

A new routine has begun.

“...”

tap tap tap

Deadman118 (KOR): Looking for the wife of Kim Byeong-seon, former webhard company CEO.

Deadman118 (KOR): Kim Byeong-seon has something he wants to say to his wife. If you see this message, please reply immediately. I’ll go anywhere.

Since Ballantine disappeared, I log in to Necropolis every day to look for his wife.

There’s a photo I have to deliver.

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