Dystopia Of Night - Chapter 4 Part 3

“This is enough. How can we let a woman who’s willing to kill people stay by our side?”

Sehan supported the staggering Yuju. The ‘we’ here naturally referred to Sehan and Yuju, but Hansol, moved by the situation, enthusiastically nodded his head.

“That’s right! Let’s either drive her away or kill her.”

Hansol’s casual mention of Yeonji’s death after spending a month with her struck Yuju deeply, and she found herself having difficulty breathing again. Sehan stood still, his expression cold and composed, but narrowed his eyes when he felt Yuju’s gaze.

It seemed like he didn’t understand her reaction at first glance.

‘Am I the one who’s weird?’

Her mouth felt parched. She wasn’t sure what was right anymore. Something that until just a moment ago seemed obvious had turned into a mystery that would never be solved.

“To prevent any future troubles, we need to kill her…”

“B-But we don’t have to go that far.”

The hot air burned her throat.Yuju shook her head in confusion.

“It’s not right for us to take another person’s life based on our standards. That’s a very dangerous idea.”

“Well then, what do we do? We don’t have the time or resources to monitor this woman. Are we going to confine her and just feed her? It would be better to cultivate a ticking time bomb!”

Hansol frustratedly shouted, convinced he wasn’t wrong. He couldn’t just let Yeonji go, and he didn’t want to live like he was watching over criminals. It would just be a waste of manpower and food.

“Pointing a gun at someone is no different from being a murderer. I don’t want to monitor that crazy woman, and I certainly don’t want to provide her with food. I don’t want to be around her. I don’t want to share the same space! Don’t you feel the same way?”

Hansol looked back at Sehan, expecting him to agree, but Sehan didn’t look at him.

“….”

Yeonji, with her head bowed and unusually quiet, had her ankle slightly swollen compared to a while ago. Her ankle was not visible because she was wearing long pants, but it was clearly in a strange state.

Logically, it would be reasonable to assume that Yeonji sprained her ankle by tripping, but her being already pale, coupled with her skin turning an unnatural shade of blue, was unsettling.

Sehan recalled Yeonji’s actions that often defied common sense. Judging by her words – something he overheard when she conversed with Yuju – it seemed like she had sacrificed Hae-jun in the forest, killing him and escaping from the monster all on her own.

It was only fitting to perceive that she felt overwhelming guilt and her sanity crumbling due to the fact that she had killed Hae-jun in the same way he killed her sister.

However, this place didn’t adhere to logic or reason.

Yeonji’s once bluish skin began to wrinkle as if undergoing rapid aging. In addition, one of Yeonji’s legs swelled up to a terrifying degree.

Could it be that something has manipulated Yeonji’s mind and changed her?

Sehan, relying partly on instinct, raised his gun upon spotting the black figure peeking out from behind Yeonji’s pants.

Click, thud.

Sehan’s finger smoothly pulled the trigger, and the bullet reached Yeonji’s ankle in less than a second.

“Kkyaaaaaa!”

The bullet struck the swollen black entity instead of Yeonji’s body. However, Yeonji writhed in agony as if her body had been torn to shreds, foaming at the mouth. Her skin moved in uneven ripples, resembling a snake slithering inside her.

“I-Is that also a monster?”

It was undoubtedly a part of this world. Sehan quietly stepped back a few steps with Yuju.

It burst out of Yeonji’s chest. The black tentacles that were embedded in Yeonji’s chest like black nails writhed and grew at an incredible speed, tearing Yeonji’s body to pieces and completely pulling itself out from within her.

However, it didn’t attack them. Startled by the sunlight, it shivered and then swiftly darted away into the tree shadows. The monster fled deeper into the forest along the path of shadows, and the three of them didn’t bother chasing it.

In its place, the still warm blood and flesh lay grotesquely sprawled on the floor.

‘I can’t take it anymore… I’m scared..’

The person they had just been conversing with moments ago now lay there, dying in a horrible way. No matter how many times Yuju experienced it, she couldn’t become accustomed to this situation.

“Ugh… Disgusting.”

As Hansol brushed past Yuju, he glanced at Yeonji’s corpse and shrugged.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to get rid of. We just need to cover it with some dirt.”

Yuju, unable to resist the sight of her vision turning black, slumped and fainted.

***

After laying the unconscious Yuju down on the bed in the camper, Sehan looked at her face and fell into thought.

“You’re fine. You’re just a little shocked…”

While Sehan tended to be cold and indifferent, he still wasn’t accustomed to death. Naturally, he had never seen a corpse that died horribly before.

However, he was surprisingly unmoved. Even though he was a cold-natured person, it wasn’t as if he was completely devoid of emotions. 

It wasn’t only Sehan who was numb to it. He recalled the fact that not only he, but others, including himself, reacted quite calmly to the deaths of others. How many people could adapt so nonchalantly to this terrifying world?

“Unless we’re all psychopaths, it doesn’t make sense.”

However, most people had adapted quickly to this world. Even Yuju, who had a delicate heart, seemed to be adjusting, albeit slowly.

Yet she still retained her humanity. It was as if she had managed to reclaim what had been forcibly stripped away from her.

It made Sehan question whether merely living in this place was robbing humans of their emotions.

It was a ridiculous hypothesis, but Sehan didn’t laugh at his own thoughts. It was a world that was shocking and frightening that it was beyond his imagination.

“Then why are you…”

Sehan’s grip tightened on Yuju’s hand. He didn’t want to lose her.

“Perhaps it would have been better if you had become numb too.”

Could it be, just maybe, that his judgments up until now were wrong?

What if he hadn’t let Yuju’s kind heart be as it was and had gradually corrupted it? If that had happened, would she have also fallen into corruption and not been hurt by others’ deaths?

“Even now…”

Sehan, envisioning the gentle, peacefully sleeping face of Yuju now drenched in bright red blood, took a sharp breath.

He knew he could still passionately love the changed Yuju, but he also understood that she was no longer the same person.

Yet sometimes, even when knowing everything, humans made foolish choices.

“…..”

Sehan realized that this world was watching their choices, his and hers.

***

?? Instruction: ????? ????? Path (Difficulty: ?, Very Easy)

????1. ?? ??? do ??d ?????, yo? ???? ???? ?ad! ???????? ???? ??? ????? ?? ???? ????, ?? ???? ???? ? ???? ????!

??ep 2. ???? ???????? ?????? ??????, ? ???? ???? ????! ????? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ??an ???? ??n!

St??3. ??? ???? ??? ?? ??????? ????? ????????e! ???????, ?????? ?? die!?

In the dim forest path devoid of human presence, the distorted characters on the solitary shining stone tablet began to sway. And the first line changed.

?? Instruction: ????? ????? Path (Difficulty: ?, Very Easy)

Step 1. If you do bad things, you will smell bad! Monsters like the smell of foul food, so let’s live a good life!

??ep 2. ???? ???????? ?????? ??????, ? ???? ???? ????! ????? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ??an ???? ??n!

St??3. ??? ???? ??? ?? ??????? ????? ????????e! ???????, ?????? ?? die!?

During the attack of the tentacled monster, there were a few criminals who hastily fled. However, none of them survived now.

The remaining humans in this world were Yuju, Sehan, and Hansol — just those three.

***