Ch.110Apocalypse Puzzle (3)

“Good. A timeline has been created.”

The moment Robin finished her story.

I could read the new changes with the eyes of a Librarian.

[Conditions satisfied.]

Conditions for what?

The Library didn’t tell me anything, but I already knew.

Yebin, synchronized with the Library’s management system, met my gaze.

‘The conditions to move forward into the future.’

Until now, no matter what we did, we couldn’t reach the truth.

Escaping the apartment through exploration was also impossible.

Even risking our lives to move around only resulted in finding slightly safer floors.

“Dabin. So. Can we escape now?”

Yebin asks me.

Her voice is clear, but others can’t hear it.

It’s a conversation using the Library’s management system that only we can access.

“Out of the apartment. I want to go outside.”

“Yes. We could leave right away now.”

We could exit this building immediately.

“But we shouldn’t yet.”

There’s nothing more foolish than leaving the final ark on your own.

We’ve obtained the key to get out, but that’s all. There’s much to prepare before setting out on a journey.

Yebin nods as if she understands.

“Then we shouldn’t tell the others either. If we mention it, they’ll want to leave right away.”

There was no need to answer.

Though it feels like we haven’t known each other long, Yebin and I already share so much.

If I’m in a management position, Yebin is like a secretary helping me with my work.

I quietly observed Yebin.

Small frame. Long silver hair covering her small head.

She stands beside me with an incongruously solemn expression.

Seeing her like that made me laugh involuntarily.

“Hey. Lighten up. Everyone else will figure it out.”

“……”

Yebin’s face remains stern.

She quietly raises her gaze and asks me directly.

“Dabin. Aren’t you struggling?”

“Are you struggling?”

“Yes. How can we stop this? How can we?”

Only then could she be honest with me.

I took the soul trapped in the phone and placed it in a new body.

Not stopping there, I merged it with the Library’s administrator. Now Yebin and I share stories about the end of the world.

I created such a being because this task was too overwhelming to handle alone.

In fact, it still is.

Constantly, repeatedly, I see the apocalypse outside the apartment.

I squeezed my eyes shut. The end is still visible. Even more clearly now.

It’s still okay. For now.

But can I continue to endure this?

The more I learn, the clearer the image of the end becomes.

I need to stop it.

I need to take care of Serim too.

What if I break down…?

“Dabin?”

“……”

“Dabin maman!”

I opened my eyes.

Caught in a spiral of thoughts, I was finally able to escape thanks to Yebin calling me.

By the way. Why does she keep calling me maman? I was originally male. Strictly speaking, I’m not a mother either. All I did was create a body.

“Don’t call me that.”

“But you’re smiling.”

“I’m smiling because it’s ridiculous.”

“We need to stay focused together. That’s how we can prevent the apocalypse.”

“…Yeah.”

I’m grateful.

That there’s at least one person I can talk to about these things.

I hear Robin speaking to the other survivors.

“Now I can explain about the Fifth Apostle.”

“Wow. The Fifth Apostle. It really got released?”

“Be quiet, Riko. This is serious.”

While the two were bickering, Seok Hyunmin raised his hand and asked a question.

“The Fifth Apostle. Is that the nature of the disaster? Is that why the future world was destroyed?”

“Yes. Almost certainly.”

Robin shows the timeline in her notebook again.

A massive line is drawn across the center of the page.

[DISASTER]

Seok Hyunmin reads the words written below it one by one.

“Volcanic eruption. Disease outbreak. Great Depression. Earthquake. War…”

I already knew this, but it was a truth I had forgotten due to Choi Serim’s ability.

The impact was tremendous as I belatedly recalled these memories.

“Is this real? Can all this happen just because one monster was released?”

“Yes. All of it is the result of the Fifth Apostle being released.”

Seok Hyunmin stepped back in shock.

In the elevator, only Robin maintained her composure.

“A high-ranking official of the Foundation called ‘Professor’ released the Fifth Apostle. As a result, the world will be destroyed.”

No.

It’s not the Fifth Apostle.

The real enemy is behind it.

To be precise, it hangs like a shadow behind the Fifth Apostle.

Seven.

It appears by borrowing the form of the strongest enemy in a story to destroy that story.

If there’s a story about a hero fighting a demon lord, the demon lord is Seven.

If there’s a story about a protagonist striving for their dreams, the wall of reality and the protagonist’s sense of frustration is Seven.

And the moment you lose to the enemy.

Seven opens its mouth to devour the world, and one story is permanently erased from all dimensions.

In this world, the enemy was the Fifth Apostle.

It caused massive disasters, and humanity was defeated. Then Seven swallowed the story in which we exist.

But there’s still a path remaining.

The existence of this space where we are now is maintaining the world.

“But there is a way. The possibility of preventing the apocalypse and restoring the world remains in this apartment.”

“What possibility?”

“The Fifth Apostle. Research was needed to release it. And that research is still ongoing in this apartment.”

Heo Yoon looks dumbfounded.

“The research is still ongoing… Then I don’t understand how the disaster happened.”

“That’s because the timeline within the apartment is complexly tangled. It flows separately from reality.”

This is difficult to understand intuitively.

Yoon Daju was actually the quickest to reach a conclusion.

“So we just need to stop it here. Right?”

“Yes. Daju is correct.”

“That’s simple. It’s like time travel.”

“You can understand it that way without any problems.”

“Then shouldn’t we go stop it right now? Riko!”

Yoon Daju suddenly calls out to Riko.

“Tell us the lab location! So we can go there right away.”

“……”

Riko looks at Yoon Daju with a smirk.

“At times like this, Daju is exactly the same as before.”

“Hey, you…”

“Ah! Your appearance has changed a lot though.”

“Come to think of it, how did you recognize me? Just from my name? No, you recognized me even before hearing my name. How did you do that?”

“Secret!”

“Tell me.”

Yoon Daju lowered her voice threateningly, but Riko wasn’t fazed at all and smiled back.

“Then should I tell your secret too? That would be fair.”

“Ah. Wait.”

Once again, Yoon Daju is at a loss for words.

Usually others would react this way in front of Yoon Daju. But with Riko, the positions are reversed.

Is this human compatibility?

Riko shakes her head gently with a smile.

“And we shouldn’t go to the lab now. It would be difficult to break in without proper preparation.”

“We have supplies. Won’t these be enough?”

This time it’s Choi Serim.

As Yoon Daju suddenly becomes dejected, Choi Serim points to the bags piled in the back and asks.

“No. We need guns, people who know how to use them, equipment to hide ourselves, and means to neutralize security systems.”

“There are always armed personnel in Foundation facilities. I hadn’t considered that we’d need to break through them.”

Robin immediately looks to the side.

“Dan. Do you know how to handle guns?”

“To some extent.”

“I know how to shoot too.”

Dan. And Seok Hyunmin joined in as well.

“Then we have three people secured.”

It really seems like they’re about to storm the research lab.

I had no choice but to step in.

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes, Dabin.”

“I think it would be too dangerous to rush in so hastily.”

“I know. I wasn’t planning to barge in right away either.”

“Oh. Then… never mind.”

I feel awkward somehow.

Especially because Robin answered as if it was so obvious.

Feeling a bit dejected, I was about to retreat to the corner of the elevator when Heo Yoon jumped in.

“Robin. I agree with Dabin. We should first find a floor where we can stay safely. That was our original exploration purpose. I understand the world is ending, but we can’t invade a research facility we know nothing about based on that alone. We need time to rest and prepare. For that, finding a safe floor is the priority.”

Heo Yoon speaks like the leader she is.

Finally, she asks Robin:

“How long will it take to complete that research?”

“I’m not sure, but someone here probably knows well.”

At Robin’s nonchalant conclusion, Riko flinches.

“Uh, that, I thought you were going to keep it secret?”

“Riko, you were researching with the ‘Professor’ anyway. It wasn’t something you were hiding.”

“Ah…”

Riko hunches over like a shrimp and sighs deeply.

“Yes. I was researching with them. To release the Fifth Apostle, we needed to remove the chains binding it. That was the research.”

She trembles, seemingly feeling guilty on her own.

Her breathing becomes rough.

“But I’m a victim too! The Professor deceived me! They said we were making new chains to bind it more securely!”

Riko raises her voice tearfully.

Of all people, she grabs me to pour out her grievances.

“So I thought it was good research!”

“Yes.”

“But then the chains started breaking and getting damaged… I asked if something was wrong with the experiment and nearly got killed! You saw me bleeding!”

“That’s right.”

“Don’t doubt me! Really! I’m telling you everything honestly!”

Shake, shake.

Riko grips my shoulders tightly and shakes me with all her might.

My hair is flying everywhere, and I can’t tell if it’s mine or Riko’s.

“Please…”

Perhaps she has trauma from being abandoned in the lab.

She’s almost kneeling, looking up at me with extremely desperate eyes.

“I don’t doubt you.”

When I respond calmly, Riko freezes in that position.

With her eyes wide open.

“Huh?”

“I don’t doubt you. Riko just needs to tell us how much time we have left.”

“Well,”

Riko thinks for a moment.

“Ten days. It should be completed by then. With a ‘catalyst,’ it could be finished within an hour, but the Professor rejected and scrapped that idea.”

“Catalyst?”

“Ah. This is meaningless now. A black-haired woman with strong anomalous resistance? They said we could do it if we captured her. But suddenly they abandoned that idea.”

“……”

I flinched for a moment.

That’s me.

“Anyway, we have 10 days. Right?”

“Yes.”

“Then we need to prepare within that time.”

The elevator starts to shake again.

We’ll soon arrive at our destination.

10 days.

Find a safe floor to use as a base, and arm ourselves enough to raid the research lab.

It’s a tight schedule in many ways.

Clunk-

The torn door had been restored long ago.

Slowly, the elevator doors part on both sides.

Robin checks her pistol.

Dan needlessly rotates his arms to loosen his shoulders.

Beside me, Choi Serim holds my hand tightly.

Yoon Daju stares intently at the crowbar in her hand.

Swoosh-

The doors disappear.

The outside of the elevator is now fully revealed.

Between the wide-open doors.

What was in front of them was reality.

The sunlit glass doors of the apartment that could lead outside at any moment.

Beyond them, well-trimmed shrubs and asphalt roads are visible.

A piece of the everyday life everyone had been longing for was right there.

“What is this…”

“An exit? Have we returned outside?”