TWLPOD 39
by soapa‘But that doesn’t mean the dilemma stops.’
Five hours at most.
If about an hour had passed since they entered the fortress, he could not let time slip away in the same manner as before.
‘More importantly, evading is more physically taxing than destroying.’
Having concluded that there was no other method but destruction, he realized that the Key was also desperate in the successive battles aimed at exhausting their strength. He placed his hands on his knees and dropped his head, then straightened his back again and faced the next question.
Question: Can you kill the enemy in this room?
(Lives at stake: 30)
O, X
Time remaining to answer: 01:00:00
The question itself was not much different from the previous one. With the strategy of forcing combat to deplete their stamina, he was now at a point where he was looking forward to what kind of machine would pop out this time. And what appeared before him was…
“No way.”
Even though Kay knew it was a lie, his heart lurched, and he failed to dodge the surprise attack. The blade that flew from behind him embedded itself deep into his body.
Meanwhile.
Question: Can you kill the enemy in this room?
(Lives at stake: 30)
O, X
Time remaining to answer: 01:00:00
Aran, who had received the same question as Kay, struck down the enemy aircraft that appeared before him and stomped on it. The expression on his face as he aimed a spear at the machine’s neck was, for once, tinged with annoyance.
“I didn’t plan on showing off my strength in a place like this.”
Along with his irritated voice, a crunching sound was heard, and cracks formed on the android’s skin.
The fact that his already pale skin had taken on a slightly more pallid hue due to the expenditure of his power was clearly revealed through the contrast with the android he was facing.
[“Then I’ve succeeded.”]
“Stop spouting nonsense with that face.”
[“My face, is it?”]
The android, which was smiling as if to show off, had the exact same face as Aran, as if facing a mirror.
“If you’re trying to piss me off, you’ve succeeded.”
Four small spears that appeared over Aran’s shoulder lodged themselves in each of the android’s limbs. Pinned to the floor, it struggled, but green oil only flowed down to the floor; it could not break free.
“Hmm…”
Aran withdrew the spear he had been holding to the android’s neck and stood up straight, then checked the remaining time. About twenty minutes. It was far from enough to achieve what he wanted, but it seemed possible to vent some anger.
[“What are you planning to do?”]
Aran crouched down and stared intently at the face of the android, whose limbs were pinned to the ground.
The sight of his own face for the first time in a while was so revolting it made him want to vomit.
“Take a guess.”
[“…Stop.”]
Aran, who had readjusted his glove, placed a hand on the android’s body.
“Weren’t you modeled after me?”
[“What are you… what in the…”]
“Then you should know what I’m about to do.”
The white lights on his glove vanished into the machine as if being absorbed. And not long after, a breath resembling a cough burst out, and the green oil began to bead up and seep out through its mouth, its speared limbs, and the pores on its manufactured skin.
[“Gack—! Gack!”]
Struggling changed nothing.
“Don’t pretend it hurts.”
[“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”]
“You’ve been programmed to feel pain. It doesn’t actually hurt.”
[“Lies, lies, lies!!!”]
The word ERROR appeared over the eyes of the machine, which once again twisted its body violently, spraying green liquid in all directions.
“Wow. No matter what, you’re ugly at this point.”
Aran, who had distanced himself to avoid being splattered by the oil, muttered, then created another spear and plunged it into the very center of the machine. The spear, which pierced all the way to the floor, destroyed the core, and the android, having lost its power, slowly lost its breath. Aran carefully watched that face as it died with its eyes open for the remaining time.
As if he wanted to remember his own dying face.
His words that there was someone he desperately wanted to kill were not a lie.
Sage, who watched as the final room he had prepared came to an end, straightened his clothes and his posture.
He had run numerous simulations and tried to produce the best result, but in the end, the probability of it turning out this way had exceeded 70%. Since it was a fortress whose core had been breached by Aran alone before, this must have been its inevitable fate.
‘I have no regrets since I did everything I could.’
Sage, who had been watching the two people on the screen, stood up and checked the window that had displayed a notification.
[System: Combat Data Analysis Complete (4/4)]
[Proceeding with 해당 데이터 유효성 검토 (100%)]
[ 해당 데이터 입력 완료 (100%)]
[Output Rate 100%]
[Turn on the power?]
Pressing the button and choosing his own future, he released the culmination of his research, into which the combat program had been fully inputted, and quickened his steps.
Beyond the opened door, unlike the narrow rooms until now, was a large space. At the end of the vast expanse, which was wide in all directions, were a glass door and a long passage leading to the spire.
Clank!
While Aran was taking off one glove and surveying his surroundings, a door opened a short distance away, and Kay appeared.
“Kay.”
Aran, who had called his name, paused as he observed the expression revealed between the fluttering black strands of hair. Then Kay, letting out a small cough, raised his eyes and met his gaze.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
‘Is it just my imagination?’
“If you called me, then say something.”
Aran, who had approached him, smelled something burnt and singed from him and reached out his bare hand without a word. Then Kay, slap, blocked his hand just before it touched his cheek.
“You first. I’m fine.”
Cough, he coughed once more. It might just be from inhaling smoke, but…
“I’m still fine too.”
Aran, without letting his smile fade, cupped Kay’s neck and jaw and sent out his wavelength. Aran’s wavelength flowed quickly along the ‘path’ that had been tamed through several contacts. There were parts where the flow of energy was blocked as if nails had been driven in, letting him know that Kay was quite depleted.
‘But it doesn’t seem like he pushed himself to the point of his complexion changing.’
Aran, who was about to send a stronger wave to help him maintain the best possible condition, felt a killing intent and pulled away.
A bullet that had appeared from somewhere lodged itself in the spot where the two of them had dodged, almost at the same time.
[“Unfortunately, I cannot give you time to regroup.”]
The voice of a figure walking from the passage beyond the transparent door was heard.
It was the same figure he had seen in the entrance hall, with his short hair tied back and holding a gun.
[“How was it? The truth game.”]
“It was fucked up.”
“It was fucked up.”
The two of them spat out the same words, without a single syllable’s difference.
[“I’m honored. I’m glad my diligent preparations were worth it, since you gave it your all.”]
Tap, tap. As he walked in with audible footsteps and stepped onto the marble, the color of the space changed. The ivory cubes… turned silver, and then into hundreds of mirrors, disorienting the sense of space.
[“Although the penalty I set was a lie.”]
Kay, who was witnessing hundreds of reflections of himself in the mirrors, doubted his ears at the words he heard.
“What did you just say?”
[“That the soldiers outside would die if you didn’t tell the truth, that was a lie.”]
The distortions were clear as hundreds of reflections of himself were cast in the mirrors, which were at all different angles.
[“The extent to which my ability exerts influence is, at best, within this fortress. Well, either way, you had no way of confirming it, so you had no choice but to respond sincerely.”]
Even amidst such chaos, the Key calmly asked.
[“How about it? The power of belief is strong, isn’t it?”]
Lines flowed out from the gun held in the Key’s hand. The lines, writhing as if alive, burrowed into its skin and connected with it like blood vessels.
Watching this, Kay, whose lips were parting, could not help but ask.
“But the truth you speak of is not the ultimate truth.”
At those words, the Key took a deep breath.
“Just as the fact that I am me doesn’t change, even if I suddenly get hit on the head and lose all my memories.”
Just as the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun does not change, even if the whole world believes that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
[“Still, belief has an effect. And that effect changes the world. Just as you couldn’t lie because you believed the lives staked on the outside were real. Besides…”]
The Key, who had paused for a moment, continued.
[“Couldn’t a day come when the truth you believe in and believe in becomes the ultimate truth?”]
Simultaneously with those words, click— the sound of a gun being loaded was heard.
His every action was so leisurely and elegant that he did not look like he was about to fight for his life.
But as if reading Kay’s thoughts, he quickly aimed the gun and curved his violet eyes into half-moons.
[“Be careful.”]
Along with the whisper, a sound of something cutting through the wind was heard. The sound of something rushing forward. Patter patter patter. The sound of running feet.
A shadow that ran so fast that the passage the Key had walked down was obscured leaped over its master’s shoulder and pounced on Kay’s head.
Clang—!
Only after knocking it away with his sword did he see that it was a four-legged beast. It resembled a dog or a wolf, but it was incomparably larger, and the claws that had scraped the floor were by no means natural.
[“Grrrrrr—”]
The characteristic noise of a machine brought a kind of certainty. That the beast before him was a created creature. But to simply call it an android, there was a subtle sense of incongruity. Traces that looked like bodies had been joined together, between the fluttering fur. Those traces, which he had seen somewhere before, overlapped with the mechanical body that had been connected below Simon’s neck.