Chapter 58

37. Immortality (4)

Riding a bicycle for an hour to find a place and kill someone isn't that difficult.

It was dark, and the lights of the settlers were not visible.

Perhaps this was the result of the recent chaos in Seoul.

Once the situation in Incheon stabilized, the dormant power struggles began to surface.

Criticism against the indefinite extension of the term for the National Assembly members, who received unnecessary resources and excessive treatment, intensified, leading the National Assembly to announce the selection of 500 so-called "National Representatives," similar to National Assembly members.

I'm not sure, but it seems that some of the settlers are also vying to become National Representatives.

They seem to think they are qualified.

After all, if the number of people they have sent to their deaths is considered an achievement, they have a right to claim their share.

Still, reality always seems more despicable and dirty than one can imagine.

Before I even reached the entrance of the air-raid shelter where Dragon lived, I encountered unexpected figures.

Three men were sitting on the road, quite a distance from the air-raid shelter, drinking and chatting around a drum can with a fire inside.

They were probably the gang brought by Filkum's brother.

I hid for a moment and eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Those guys over there. Aren't they Chinese?"

"I wish I could just kill all those bastards."

"They say the U.S.-South Korea joint forces swept them all into the sea, but the government only lies, you know."

"That manga guy's wife is pretty hot. Damn, can't I just kill that guy and have some fun with his wife?"

"I don't know. It's up to Hyungmin. At least we got plenty of food and alcohol. This is a good deal, isn't it?"

Pointless talk.

There's no need to pay attention to such nonsense.

I thought for a moment about how to handle the situation.

I could kill them with a gun or an axe.

Before taking action, I conducted a thorough reconnaissance.

Sure enough, there was a car.

A bulletproof electric vehicle.

Next to it was a solar-powered charger.

The car was empty, but it was filled with alcohol and food, which seemed to belong to Dragon.

I reassessed the situation.

Three men around the air-raid shelter.

Three men inside the air-raid shelter.

Of course, this is based on the assumption that Dragon is already dead.

I approached the car and placed large rocks in front of the tires.

Just in case.

Of course, no one will leave without my permission.

I slowly approached the fire.

Since there was no one guarding the rear, I could approach easily.

Without slowing down, I walked up and struck the neck of an unsuspecting man holding a bottle with my axe.

Thud!

The axe blade pierced the flesh and shattered the bone with a light sound.

The man couldn't even scream as he staggered.

Before he fell, I struck the head of another man who was turning around with another axe, with precise force.

Crack!

The last remaining man was lucky.

He got to see my face, at least.

But at the same time, he was unlucky.

He had to take two axes at once.

I supported his body as if chopping wood, with the axe blades embedded in both of his arms.

Squish-

The blood flowed onto my gloved hands but didn't stain my clothes.

I slowly laid him down next to the fire, as if putting a child to bed, and headed for the air-raid shelter.

At the entrance, the man who claimed to be Filkum's brother was sitting in the camping chair where Filkum and I had sat, looking out at the distant sea.

I glanced at him.

He had no weapon.

The air-raid shelter door was closed.

"......"

He wasn't worth talking to, but a whim overcame me.

Or perhaps I had questions.

The moonlight allowed me to step out of the darkness and reveal myself.

"What, what is this?! Who are you?!"

The man's bloodshot eyes soon found me.

"Pick up your weapon."

I showed him the bloodied axe.

The man shrank back in his chair.

"You're a Hunter, right?"

"What, what?! Yehun! Yehun!"

He shouted towards the fire.

When there was no response, he turned to the air-raid shelter and shouted again.

"Hojun! Hojun!"

He fired three shots towards the entrance of the air-raid shelter with his pistol.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gunshots and the sound of the bullets being fired broke the silence around the air-raid shelter.

I confirmed the screams from inside and asked him.

"Where did they go?"

The man rolled his eyes frantically and reached for a dagger on the ground.

I let him grab the dagger.

"Where did the people here go?"

I thought he would get closer to the answer I wanted if he held the dagger.

"I killed them."

The man told the truth as soon as he held the dagger.

Perhaps the dagger gave him some confidence, and he sneered.

"You knew, didn't you? That if you went, that guy would die? Why didn't you stop him? Huh?"

But he only gained confidence.

Holding the dagger wouldn't change anything.

I walked up to him with the axe.

The man brandished the sharp blade and barked like a dog.

"You! Are you crazy?! Aren't you going to back off? Huh? Huh? I'll stab you! Huh?! I'll stab you?!"

In the end, he was the first to stab with the dagger.

At the same time, perhaps out of habit, he reached out with his other hand to grab me.

The two axes cut through the air.

Clang!

One knocked the dagger away.

Thud!

The other struck his elbow, making his arm dangle.

"Aaaaaah!"

I watched the man scream in pain and asked him.

"Are you a Hunter?"

The man bit his lip, looking like a crying child.

I didn't need to hear his answer.

I threw the axe.

The axe flew in a parabolic arc towards the man, who had a grimace on his face.

It would take about a second.

A second would be enough for him to realize his actions and fate.

Perhaps that one second felt like an eternity to him.

Crack!

The man died without putting up a single decent resistance, the axe embedded in his forehead.

I pulled the axe out, wiping the brain matter and blood, and headed for the air-raid shelter.

Inside, a man's heavy breathing, a woman's scream, and a child's cry mixed together.

Was there anyone else?

It didn't matter if there was.

I held a pistol in one hand and an axe in the other, and calmly said to the closed door.

"Open the door. Before I kill everyone."

The door opened.

A terrified family appeared before me.

There were no other enemies as I had feared.

I checked the corners to see if anyone was hiding, but they were all there.

I waved my pistol around the air-raid shelter, and Filkum knelt before me.

"I'm really sorry! Please spare me! At least my family, my family only... "

"Where is my friend?"

DragonC.

The end of the man who used to give us the vitamin of life, humor, on our community bulletin board was ordinary.

I saw the man rotting on a field, covered with only a shallow layer of dirt that barely concealed his face.

The decaying face was strangely not much different from when he was alive.

The dark red color of the soil, reminiscent of death.

Filkum begged for his life in front of the corpse.

"I didn't kill him. Hyungmin did. Hyungmin said to kill him... "

"Dig again."

I threw him a shovel.

"Properly."

I stepped back and watched as Filkum buried Dragon.

"Wait."

I paused his work.

Something fell from the body.

It was definitely it.

A plastic-wrapped envelope containing a stack of papers, Dragon's manuscript.

The title was "The Remnant."

The last masterpiece that Dragon had been so eager to complete, the one that would make him immortal.

I stood there and read his manuscript.

It was more like a collection of words than a storyboard.

Dragon used to create a story with words first and then draw the storyboard based on it.

I think I've heard him say this before.

"......"

Now I understand.

The reason he was slow.

He had to do two tasks.

But the sentences he left behind had a power that touched the heart.

While Filkum was digging the grave, I entered the air-raid shelter.

The family looked at me with fear, but I ignored them and looked around the shelter.

The atmosphere had changed significantly.

The biggest change was that all the posters of Dragon's works, which he had put up, were removed.

I sat at Dragon's work desk, looking for another reason to kill.

"......"

Was this the laptop Dragon used in his lifetime?

I stroked the laptop and moved my gaze to the monitor.

Several PaleNet posts were open on the internet window.

All of them were trivial things that Filkum had written and read.

I was about to close them all when I noticed our bulletin board window was also open in a corner.

I looked at our bulletin board with Dragon's account.

The small world that was always appropriately chaotic and appropriately collapsing.

Something caught my eye.

The draft list.

One post was left unfinished, waiting to be completed.

I opened it.

DragonC: I'm partnering with Filkum!

-Filkum, this guy. He's just a bastard. His imagination is outstanding, and his basics are incredible. Damn, I felt a wall.

But you know what, friends.

There's one thing I do better than him.

I'm a much better "storyteller" than Filkum.

We're going to make a big splash. This Dragon and Filkum88 will team up!

"......"

Dragon's last post never made it to the bulletin board.

But it was clearly conveyed to me.

What he wanted to tell me.

"You have one way to live."

Inside the air-raid shelter.

I calmly told the exhausted Filkum, who was kneeling.

"Become Dragon."

"What?!"

I handed Filkum Dragon's manuscript.

"I'm telling you to complete this under his name."

"This, this?!"

Filkum's face showed a slight shock.

"Is this a sequel to what I drew?"

I slowly nodded.

Filkum's face, initially filled with confusion as he looked at the storyboard and manuscript, gradually changed.

To surprise and shock.

"Is this...?"

He looked up at me with a serious expression.

"Honestly, it's great!"

I turned and left him behind.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes. Complete this. That's the condition for me to forgive you."

I didn't want to talk to him anymore.

Otherwise, I might end up killing him and his family.

The fake goldfish in the aquarium on the corner of the desk wriggled violently and turned its stupid face towards me.

"......"

I put the aquarium in my arms and left.

*

DragonC: "The Remnant" Chapter 2

Two weeks later, the latest chapter of Dragon's masterpiece, "The Remnant," was posted on the bulletin board.

It was a time when Incheon was selecting 500 so-called "National Representatives," a pointless event that was angering everyone, and rumors of the military faction's elite attempting to seize power were spreading, causing chaos.

The latest chapter of Dragon's work, which appeared amidst this stifling situation, brought the same emotion to the two different groups, PaleNet and Viva! Apocalypse!

Amid the numerous praises, I was immersed in the scent of coffee, reading the last work he had entrusted to me.

SKELTON

In the storyboard, which was nothing more than a scribble, a man stood with an axe.

He was clumsy on the internet but in real life, he was sharp, knew loyalty, and knew how to fight.

I read his scribbled work as if I were sharing a comic drawn by another child in school.

"Hey, that's not right."

Well, it seems Dragon was strongly impressed by me.

When you see this Park Kyu alone cutting down medium-sized creatures and finishing off large ones with a move that reminds you of a sword technique.

I'm not an Awakened, and I've never heard of an Awakened who uses sword techniques.

But it wasn't a completely absurd story.

"Ah, damn, a dream!"

As you can see from the last monologue of the character Skeleton.

I opened a notepad with a bitter smile, unsure if it was a genuine one.

A pure, eternal space unfolded before me.

I unconsciously typed two words into the blank notepad.

Immortality.

The phrase was soon erased by a series of meaningless backspaces.

"......"

There were two authors.

One died, and one remained.

To become immortal.

To remain immortal.

To leave behind immortality.

"Immortality... "

I shook my head.

Is it too simplistic to express Dragon's intention with the cliché word "immortality"?

The fake goldfish seemed to agree with my thoughts, turning to look at me with a dazed face.

I lightly tapped the table, and the various physical phenomena caused by the reaction coincidentally made me think of something.

Perhaps this situation, this flow, is Dragon's intention.

A timeless masterpiece completed by his death itself.

Or perhaps we are fish swimming in the dream of the dead.

If our world has been incorporated into his work, it would be a plausible story.