Ch.71MOTHER (3)

In the dark warehouse, I was on high alert.

Crunch-

Crunch-

Something invisible was devouring a dead body.

“Our little Hayul. Still hungry? Mommy’s feeling a bit sick.”

Heo Yoon watched it with satisfaction, speaking as if she were truly addressing a child.

The sight sent chills down my spine.

It seemed certain that Heo Yoon had been pregnant.

However, something wrong had taken residence there.

She couldn’t accept that.

Instead, she chose to deny her own perception.

That’s not a monster.

It’s a perfectly normal, lovely child…

She was brainwashing herself to believe this.

How much mental pressure must she have been under to end up like this?

I felt a momentary pang of sympathy, but time was running short.

“Noona. Look over there.”

Jung Haewon pointed to the opposite side of the warehouse.

“People keep coming out, like they’re being copied.”

“What?”

“There! From that door!”

Just as he said, there was an unfamiliar structure built into the warehouse wall.

A wooden door that opened both ways.

Each time the door opened, another Heo Yoon walked out.

“What on earth is that… Where did she get such a thing?”

I’d seen plenty of horrifying things before.

But this time, I couldn’t help but be shocked.

Heo Yoon’s actions were so far removed from common sense.

Thud-

Another Heo Yoon collapsed to the floor.

Then the “something” in the darkness dismembered her, turning her into dark red chunks of meat.

Obviously to make its meal easier.

Chomp, chomp, chomp.

“Hehe. Eating so well.”

Heo Yoon squatted on the floor, watching contentedly as another version of herself was being devoured.

She was feeding the clones of her own body.

To feed the monster she believed was her “baby.”

It was truly absurd, but the newly installed structure made it possible.

A wooden door with metal rings, leading somewhere.

The door opens, and cloned humans walk out in a line.

Like a scene from a movie.

Jung Haewon stared blankly at the sight and muttered.

“How is this even possible?”

“That’s not what matters right now. First…”

“I’ll get the weapons.”

Daju, who had been quietly listening, hurriedly moved.

The weapons were on the left side of the warehouse.

Completely opposite from where the slaughter was taking place.

“Yes. If possible, bring ours too.”

Daju disappeared into the darkness.

“You stay here. If anything happens, we two need to handle it.”

“Yes, noona.”

Jung Haewon remained vigilant beside me.

And then, as if in a horror movie, the warehouse lights that were supposedly broken began to flicker all at once.

Bzzt. Bzzzzt.

The fluorescent lights flickering with noise.

Then glass shards exploded in all directions.

Bang!

Crash!

We weren’t the only ones feeling anxious.

“Huh? Hayul! No. Be good, okay?”

As if something had gone wrong.

Seok Hyunmin grabbed the fidgeting Heo Yoon.

“Noona. You need to come over here now.”

“Let go. We can talk this out.”

“I’m telling you it won’t work!”

“I said let go!!!”

Heo Yoon twisted her shoulder while letting out a sharp scream.

And the next moment.

Crunch.

A severed head rolled on the floor. Heo Yoon was dead, and her blood sprayed everywhere.

But Seok Hyunmin’s expression didn’t change at all as he simply moved away.

“…”

Heo Yoon had been consumed by madness.

Seok Hyunmin had become indifferent to everything.

Their longing for normalcy had ended in the most horrific way.

“Huh.”

Jung Haewon let out a sigh.

The darkness enveloping the monster’s body was gradually lifting.

I reached out and firmly grabbed Jung Haewon’s shoulder.

“Duck.”

I pulled him down to the floor.

Something brushed past above our heads.

Plop, plop.

Warm liquid dripped onto my head.

Dark red blood.

“Wow. This is insane.”

Jung Haewon was even laughing now. When people are too scared, they start blurting out whatever comes to mind.

“Seriously, eyes on arms? This is crazy.”

“…”

“Wouldn’t dust get in those eyes every time it swings its arms? Right?”

In the dark warehouse, eyes filled with blood vessels were watching me.

Numerous eyes, each looking in different directions.

The squirming eyeballs were set in arms with bulging red and blue veins.

The skin must have been completely peeled off, as the red color and striations of muscles were clearly visible.

“Hey. Come on.”

“I’m just saying anything because I’m terrified. It helps me feel less scared.”

The eyeballs rolled around and stopped at one point.

At least 40 gazes were fixed on me.

I roughly grabbed Jung Haewon’s wrist and started running.

“Stop talking nonsense and run, you idiot!”

Whoosh-

Sharp claws grazed my shoulder.

I immediately felt a sharp pain, but I couldn’t stop.

“Daju!”

“Aaaaaahhh!”

Daju came running toward us, screaming.

The hammer she swung sank into an eyeball with a squish.

“Dieeee!!!”

Maintaining her running speed, Daju tore through the flesh.

Slash.

Slimy liquid poured out from the crushed eyeball.

“Yoon Daju! Over here!”

“I’ll buy some more time and then come!”

Thanks to Daju buying us time, I was able to hide in a corner of the warehouse.

Jung Haewon leaned against a shelf, catching his breath.

“Huff. Huff…”

“You’re acting tired when you haven’t done anything, huh.”

“Noona, you can say that even in this situation?”

“I’m just saying whatever too. Trying to stay calm.”

Daju was still fighting outside.

Whoosh-

Crunch!

Every time she swung the hammer, chunks of flesh exploded.

“Aaaah! What are you doing to Hayul!”

Heo Yoon’s screams could be heard, but Yoon Daju didn’t stop.

She kept swinging the hammer.

Eyeballs were crushed, and the sharp claws broke and fell to the floor.

Daju looked at the monster with fiery eyes while exhaling.

Before I knew it, words burst from my mouth.

“Go Yoon Daju! Kill it!!!”

“Noona, you’re really scared, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

Honestly, I don’t know why I’m acting like this.

They say people can go crazy when they’re too scared.

That must be it.

“Wow. This is exhausting.”

Daju, who had been fighting hard, came over to us.

“Oppa, take a weapon too. Here. You take one too.”

The weapon Daju handed over was, of course, a hammer.

Jung Haewon gripped the rubber handle tightly and looked at Daju.

“Noona, how do you fight with this? It’s insane.”

“Right. You haven’t been here long, have you?”

Daju spoke nonchalantly while brushing back her short hair.

She didn’t forget to ask me for information.

“Oppa, did you see anything?”

“That thing might be more dangerous than we thought.”

It was a short time, but the Librarian’s “insight” displayed a lot of information before me.

This is definitely not a good phenomenon.

When there’s a lot of data about an entity stored in the Library, it means the creature is that much more dangerous.

[Infantile Form]

[Infection]

[Hatred]

[Virus]

[Flesh Mass]

The time it took to escape was only about 30 seconds.

During that time, I checked more than ten pieces of information.

“From what I can see, that thing. It’s not something you can kill just by hitting it with a hammer.”

I organize the information that appeared before me in my mind.

Arms. Red. Numerous eyeballs.

First, I discard information describing its appearance.

These are things I don’t need to confirm again, since I’m seeing them directly.

Then I eliminate keywords with insufficient relevance.

These include entities that merely look similar or have similar names.

Deformed child. Radiation exposure progression. Red hand.

And so on.

Finally, I focused on one of the most relevant titles.

[The Fifth (2)]

One of the Fifth among those bound in chains.

One of the numerous offspring it scattered across reality.

It takes the form of a virus.

This terrible virus primarily targets pregnant women in early stages.

Once the virus passes through the placenta and reaches the fertilized egg, there’s no way to save the baby.

It uses the fertilized egg as a host to grow.

Growth doesn’t stop even after leaving the mother’s body, and it sometimes voraciously devours the mother who just gave birth.

…

The “host” that emerges from the mother’s body is still just a young embryo, but if it grows, it will transform into a disaster affecting all sentient beings.

Two things are necessary for its growth.

Evil (惡). Information that negatively affects the human mind.

Flesh (肉). Blood and flesh that actually exist, necessary to interfere with reality.

…

[End of viewing.]

The wave of information continued to flood my mind.

It took considerable effort to cut it off.

“Phew…”

I’d gathered roughly the information I needed.

There’s quite a difference between knowing something by intuition and confirming it with your own eyes.

We need to kill this thing somehow now. But there’s no good way.

Thanks to Heo Yoon’s care, it has grown quite a bit.

She cloned her own body to provide food.

Enduring the pain without a single scream. Because if she expressed her pain outwardly, the information the creature could absorb would decrease. Heo Yoon wanted to convey her pain purely within her mind.

With that level of madness.

Perhaps we’re already too late.

Rumble rumble rumble-

The warehouse floor began to shake.

Like vines spreading, blood vessels and red flesh crept up the walls.

Thump. Thump.

The walls of the warehouse, covered in biological tissue, pulsated.

Eyelids formed on them.

Soon, hundreds of bloodshot eyeballs were exposed to the air.

“Hiccup!”