Ch.163End of the World

Through the device Riko installed, the Foundation’s movements are being transmitted.

Sometimes through video. Sometimes through text.

“Ms. Riko. How is it now?”

“They’ve stopped repairing the anomalous wave section and are concentrating their manpower elsewhere. I think they’re preparing something else.”

“If it’s something else. There’s only one possibility.”

“Yes. Now, we just have to hold out as long as we can.”

Riko shows her phone.

The Foundation’s movements are transmitted through the screen.

[Three hours until nuclear apocalypse]

Below this text, numerous scenes are cross-edited.

Countless missiles fill a warehouse to capacity.

Nuclear warheads are loaded onto planes cutting through the sky.

Military generals in uniform and presidents and officials from various countries look at each other with grim faces.

Three hours until the end of the world.

One “realistic” apocalypse that humanity can create is approaching.

Jung Haewon mutters blankly.

“So the world is really ending now.”

Heo Yoon is equally dazed.

“This kind of thing. How do we stop something like this?”

All we can do now is watch.

Under the Foundation’s influence, world leaders have declared war, and all nuclear weapons on Earth have awakened from their long slumber.

Soon, no one will survive.

Knowing this, the entire world prepares for war.

“Let’s go inform them first. To Ms. Sim Jihee’s side.”

Of course, even doing that won’t stop the impending doom.

However.

“We need to evacuate as many people as possible safely.”

To save even one more person.

That’s all we can change.

“…I’ll go and tell them.”

In the heavy silence, Serim speaks up.

“The rest of you, please continue monitoring the situation.”

“No. Let’s all go together.”

“It’ll be chaotic. Are you sure, Dabin?”

“From now on, we can’t be separated for even a moment.”

It’s not because of anxiety.

To overcome this apocalypse, we cannot drift apart from each other.

According to the written script.

All characters must take the stage for the story to move toward the ending I’ve proposed.

Sim Jihee appeared in formal attire shortly after.

“Nuclear war… I expected it, but I didn’t think things would progress this quickly. I couldn’t calculate that everything would come rushing in at once…”

Visibly exhausted, she closes her eyes and organizes her thoughts for a moment.

“Three hours is too short to save everyone. Even three months would have been difficult from the start.”

Sim Jihee heaves a deep sigh.

It’s a simple principle. It’s easier to destroy something than to protect it.

The Foundation can simultaneously carry out massacres anywhere in the world.

However, the Association’s evacuation methods are limited.

‘Find a phone booth and move.’

Just this one option.

Although ability users are actively working to help with evacuation, there’s a limit to manpower.

Sim Jihee finishes her thought.

“Then. We need to save as many people as possible.”

Saying this, Sim Jihee throws off her outer jacket.

The white shirt she was wearing under her black suit is revealed.

“I’ll move directly. And the teleportation ability user… Ms. Milly, are you still there?”

“Yes.”

“Milly needs to come with me.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out what she was planning.

Sim Jihee’s ability is “ability amplification.”

She plans to amplify Milly’s “teleportation” ability to transport a tremendous number of people here at once.

“The rest of you, please wait here. If something happens to the Association or if I can’t return. Then.”

Sim Jihee approaches and lightly punches Choi Won’s elbow.

“Choi Won. You lead the people. And Dabin. I’m counting on you too.”

With those words, Sim Jihee left with Milly.

……

[One minute until nuclear apocalypse]

No one is left in front of the grandfather clock in the office.

[30 seconds until nuclear apocalypse]

Choi Won mutters while looking at the screen.

“Please.”

Choi Serim and Heo Yoon are also earnestly clasping their hands together.

Everyone waits for Sim Jihee’s return with tense faces.

And I, too.

Whether Sim Jihee will return safely.

Or whether she’ll be caught in the nuclear apocalypse and die.

The future has become unknowable.

[10 seconds until nuclear apocalypse]

“Please…”

Choi Won prays with his eyes tightly shut.

Seok Hyunmin stares blankly into space.

The phone screen shows images of nuclear weapons falling all over the world.

Nuclear weapons released from fighter jets are descending toward the ground.

Toward cities.

Toward rural villages.

Toward forests.

The screen quickly transitions, showing all the places about to be destroyed.

[5 seconds until nuclear apocalypse]

Choi Won no longer says anything.

I look around.

The people who evacuated here are busy with immediate tasks, unaware of what’s happening.

They tend to the injured and perform CPR on emergency patients.

Healing ability users move around busily treating people.

[4 seconds until nuclear apocalypse]

The grandfather clock’s second hand runs quickly toward the apocalypse.

Past 11, now toward 12.

In just 3 more seconds, the clock will point to exactly 12 o’clock.

That is, it will announce the apocalypse.

[3 seconds]

People scream.

[2 seconds]

Flames rise.

The wind blows fiercely.

Returning fighter jets crash to the ground, catch fire, and eventually explode.

The screen transitions too quickly for the eye to follow.

[1 second until nuclear apocalypse]

A flash of light fills all screens.

[Until nuclear apocalypse now.=\]

[Now -seconds]

The grandfather clock shatters.

“Ah…”

Someone among us lets out a sigh.

At that moment, light flared.

From behind it, Sim Jihee walks out calmly.

“Are we. Still alive?”

She’s accompanied by what looks like at least thousands of people.

“Seems like we’re alive. For now. There were people coordinating evacuations outside too. I brought them all at once. And from now on,

Hey!”

Choi Won rushes over and embraces Sim Jihee.

After hesitating briefly, Serim also steps forward and hugs them both tightly.

Sim Jihee, returned alive.

Numerous people now safely under the Association’s protection.

And Serim’s family, gathered in one place.

It was the final miracle in the midst of the apocalypse.

[THE END]

Beeeeeeeep-

White noise fills the phone screen.

I continue watching that screen for a while, then quietly shake my head.

Riko puts down her phone.

The world has been destroyed.

The remaining ashes have become the domain of perfect oblivion.

Seven.

It just annihilated the “reality” defined by humans.

But the story isn’t over yet.

I speak to everyone.

“This is now the last safe place. The Foundation must know that too.”

“Yeah.”

Heo Yoon responds with vacant eyes.

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

Seok Hyunmin keeps biting his lips.

“Dabin.”

“Dabin.”

Yebin and Serim are already holding both my hands tightly.

Saying nothing but my name.

“Although reality has been destroyed, the Foundation still has many devices they can operate. Anomalous entities have survived, and they can use facilities that don’t exist in reality.”

Robin calmly assesses and communicates the situation.

“And above all, there’s the massacre that just happened.”

I repeat the word Robin used.

“Massacre.”

It was something I hadn’t considered.

“But. Reality just disappeared. Is this. Even possible?”

“It is.”

Robin states firmly.

“Just before reality completely vanished. In that fleeting moment. Once an ‘idol’ was created, it descends there.”

Beeeeeeeep-

Riko’s phone screen turns on again.

The white noise resumes.

Noise appears on the previously black screen.

The true form of the Fifth Apostle appears.

“People who were sacrificed in ‘reality’ will continue to see that fleeting moment.”

The screen keeps switching to different locations.

The sky is visible.

It’s stained dark blue, as if bruised all over.

Ashes drift through the air.

Remnants of melted buildings are visible everywhere. The exposed metal skeletons of buildings are glowing red.

Traces of people who disappeared leaving only shadows from the heat of the nuclear explosion are visible.

Boiling asphalt on the streets. The corpse of a person kneeling, half-melted, is visible.

And. People who are still alive scream in hell.

The flash engulfs them.

Human silhouettes scatter in the flames.

Only one shadow remains without scattering.

That shadow in the flash is the form of the Fifth Apostle.

The apocalypse itself was an idol serving the Fifth Apostle.

Reality simultaneously vanished and did not vanish, remaining transformed as an idol of the Fifth Apostle.

The screen continues to show the devastation.

People struggle to survive, then are engulfed in flames and scattered as incomplete ashes.

Bones and melted flesh sink into the boiling asphalt and disappear.

“Aah…”

Tears well up.

I was afraid.

The phone suddenly goes dark. The black screen reflects my face.

“Hic…”

A beautiful black-haired girl is crying sorrowfully.

My former self. When I was a man. When I knew nothing, I used to joke.

Women look prettiest when they cry.

It was just something I said when drawing comics, but the reason this thought suddenly came to mind now…

My appearance was that unreal.

In an instant, I had become like this. An innocent. Young and delicate. Female body.

That’s why I was afraid.

Covered in all the sins and terrible ugliness of the world, I alone was crying in a beautiful form.

Anomalous Apartment Survival Log.

As the protagonist of this tragedy.