Chapter 81
──────
Questioner III
Shin Noah
4
To start with the conclusion, Goyori's solution of 'Wouldn't we obtain perfect information if we just pop the fairies' heads 100 more times?' ended in failure.
It wasn't because my tender heart suddenly secreted compassion, protesting that it was too cruel.
Just look at our dongsaeng Seo Gyu, who was currently experiencing anger management issues—he'd already had his head delivered via quick-service parcel more than 50 times by the fairies. Compassion? What compassion?
I, a funeral director who may oppose racism but proudly claims to be a thoroughgoing species-discriminator. My emotions have opened a two-way street exclusively for Homo sapiens.
There was exactly one reason why Goyori-style solution ended in failure.
"Commencing extermination."
"Commencing extermination."
It was because the moment we stepped out of the interrogation room, dozens of fairies swarmed toward Goyori en masse.
"What……?"
From the corridor, ceiling, above and below, dozens of fairies rushed in without any warning. All with identical faces. All expressionless.
That alone was a sufficiently cosmic horror-esque scene, but my nerves were focused elsewhere.
'The fairies didn't use their "[It is so]" speech pattern?'
Good heavens. This was nothing short of a culture shock.
Is that even legal?
Before my tongue could even cry out in shock, the hands and feet of this seasoned regressor moved first.
"You bastards! Where are you coming from!"
Thwack! I wreathed aura around my thigh and calf, first striking down the three fairies charging at Goyori from the front.
That wasn't the end of it.
The fairies had been sent flying by my kick, but in that instant, their bodies transformed like bright red balloons.
The small bodies of the fairies rapidly swelling with red liquid. The scene flowed before my eyes in slow motion.
My spine sent out a sharp warning tingle.
'Self-destruction!'
So their goal wasn't to damage us in the first place, but to close the distance.
I quickly wrapped protective aura around my entire body. And I pulled Goyori tightly into my arms.
"Ah-"
Goyori's lips moved. But her voice was buried by the noise that exploded immediately after.
KWA-AA-ANG!
An explosion powerful enough to shake the entire Cheongsong Prison. Though all sorts of modifications had been made to imprison fairies rather than humans, even the thick protective walls couldn't fully block the explosion.
Of course, they couldn't penetrate my protective barrier either.
"Damn it……."
Everything had collapsed. The corridor walls, the pillars, the ceiling, everything.
Chunks of concrete came crashing down with loud thuds against my aura-wrapped body.
"Hoo. Goyori, are you alright? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, thanks to you, Guild Master. You're amazing."
That's what she said, but as the building debris collapsed and dust rose up, I could hear her coughing.
Ssshhh…… The surrounding scenery revealed through the dust cloud was soaked as if hit by red water bombs everywhere. Probably from the LCL liquid that spurted out when the fairies' bodies exploded.
In the middle of the chaos, a single still-intact fairy was floating in the air.
"Hey, you little bastard……."
"I request dialogue."
Suddenly. One fairy spoke as if nothing had happened.
"However, there is a condition. I demand to speak with you alone――."
BANG! I instantly leaped out and grabbed the fairy's head, exploding it.
I shook off the bloody mucus sticking between my fingers.
"Don't make me laugh. You just committed a suicide terror attack, and now you want to resolve things through dialogue because I look unharmed? As expected, you crazy mass-murderer bastards really do think differently."
-Warning. We do not accept questions.
Then something amazing happened.
From the surrounding puddles, the liquids began bubbling and boiling, and in an instant, they took on fairy forms.
However, they were incomplete forms. Fairy heads, mouths, and fingers were generated from one puddle after another, each body part gaping. What the hell.
-We do not accept demands either. There must be no personnel interfering with the dialogue through any method, including photography, recording, or peeking.
-It is also prohibited to leak our conversation to others in the future.
-If you do not secure a space for just the two of us immediately, we will instantly destroy not only this area but also all terminal entities you encounter henceforth.
"……."
-We will give you 30 seconds.
I frowned deeply, then looked to the side.
Goyori was wearing an ambiguous smile that seemed both troubled and amused.
"Hmm. It's fine. You don't need to worry about me, Guild Master."
"Really? ……Thanks for caring."
"Hahaha. Instead, next time you go down to Busan, could you take me with you? I'm also interested in that Dang Seo-rin person, your friend……"
"Hmm. Alright, let's do that."
Come to think of it, there was no reason for me to feel indebted to Goyori.
Of course, there was no reason why I should bring only Goyori while leaving all the other guild members in the [Tutorial Reverse World], and above all, it was obvious as fire that Dang Seo-rin would be extremely displeased if someone else joined us on our food-tasting trips.
Even putting all that aside, the fact that she could go 'ahaha' while watching all this insanity unfold right before her eyes meant she wasn't in her right mind. But at this moment, the only thought in my head was 'Sigh, I feel bad for excluding such a kind child from the conversation.'
My brain has melted, Doctor.
Tap, tap. Goyori's footsteps crept like a rattlesnake over the building debris fragments. Tap, tap- The snake tail disappeared beyond the reinforced concrete pillar, and only then did the fairy speak.
-28 seconds elapsed.
-Confirmed that the subject has willingness to engage in dialogue.
"……So you can speak normally after all."
I also took my eyes off the direction Goyori had gone and tried to glare straight at the fairies…… tried to glare. Damn it. There were more than one or two fairies bubbling up like pot foam all around.
"Don't tell me the '[It is so]' speech pattern was just cosplay pretending to be cute all along?"
-Is that the questioner's first question?
The liquefied fairies stared straight at me. Despite their infinitely expressionless faces and tone, the intent of 'Are you really serious?' was conveyed. This was somewhat strange.
"Yes."
-The terminal entities' tone was adjusted as a setting.
-Location: Korean Peninsula, Language Used: Korean, Subject: Korean, Environment: Apocalypse.
-These entities selected the tone that would most lower people's wariness.
"What? Such a thing exists? ……Hmm, no. Actually. When you only hear the tone, it does feel lame."
-Margin of error.
-Since an average value was set, reactions to terminal entities may vary from person to person.
-Proposal. First, shall we set up the Q&A as an exchange of one question each?
-What do you think?
"……."
I shrugged my shoulders.
It was a gesture conveying that I didn't care, but more than that, I wanted to lightly test how much non-verbal expression 'those things' could understand.
-Confirmation of acceptance. First, to prevent misunderstanding, these entities did not aim for your extermination.
"Then what? Did you try to kill my dongsaeng? Why would you kill a kid who's nothing but bones?"
-It is this side's turn to ask a question.
-Why are you acting together with the pink entity?
Gazes from liquid masses poured in from all directions.
"Pink entity……? Are you talking about Goyori?"
-Affirmative and negative.
-No proper nouns or definite descriptions apply to that entity. For neutral judgment, we temporarily use 'the entity with pink hair that accompanied you in Cheongsong Prison', abbreviated as 'pink entity' as a designator.
-Please answer the question.
I furrowed my brow.
"Entity this, entity that……. I don't know why you're making a fuss about a person's name. Goyori is my guild member. She's someone who serves me as guild master. Is there some grand reason needed for people to associate with people?"
-…….
-…….
The distorted fairy forms, the 'Fairy Lord', stared at me piercingly.
Silence continued for a moment.
-Situation assessment complete. Understood.
"Now I'll ask. You, the thing called Fairy Lord or whatever. Why did you make a perfectly fine world descend into Void-like regions? And why did you forcibly summon innocent people to the tutorial and force them into a survival game?"
-…….
"Is it a game? Amusement? Like in common creative works, did you want to play with us humans like toys?"
This wasn't a question from me alone. It was a question from all awakeners who experienced the tutorial phenomenon, and furthermore, a question from all of humanity.
It was merely spoken through my mouth.
I waited for the Fairy Lord's answer, feeling as if I had become the first human to question a god.
-We will divide the questions into stages.
-First. We must point out that there is a misunderstanding on the questioner's part.
"Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?"
-It was not we who descended the entire Void onto this world. We merely controlled the phenomenon called the 'Tutorial'.
Ah.
Instead of anger toward the Fairy Lord, disappointment rose in my chest. Then this being before my eyes wasn't the master of all grotesqueries either.
The 89th-regression me was a fool, but unlike the 1183rd-regression me, I still believed the world could be returned to its original form.
-Second. We do not conduct experiments for the purpose of amusement. Survival, literally observing survival is our goal.
"What?"
-Rather, we wish to ask the questioner.
-If you were thrown into the Void environment without any preparation, without even completing the 'Tutorial' process we prepared, what survival probability would you predict?
"……."
-When calculated within a 365-day range, your survival rate is merely 1.76%.
-In contrast, the average survival rate of awakeners in the tutorial approaches 31%.
-Once you survive the tutorial, the survival rate for the subsequent 365 days also jumps to 69%.
"…So, what? You're saying you prepared this death game parade for our sake? How truly grateful. I'm so moved tears are about to fall out."
-This entity possesses neither goodwill nor malice.
-We ask the questioner to judge only whether our 'experiment' contradicts your purpose.
That's when it happened. I sensed a presence behind me and whipped around—ten or so fairies had somehow revived and were stealthily creeping toward me.
Our eyes met perfectly.
-…….
"Well, shit!"
I quickly raised my aura and harvested the fairies' heads. Pop! Their heads exploded like strawberry juice.
"Sneak attacking during a conversation? You bastards are worse than Nazis!"
-Operation failed.
-Adjusting the questioner's danger level.
"Hey! Are you seriously planning to go all the way with me? Huh? Fine. Just what I wanted. Let's see this through to the end!"
-Correction requested. It was not we but you who first displayed hostile behavior.
-You not only kidnapped these entities with abnormal hostility but also placed them in an extremely childish experimental environment.
-The environment is poor, and the purpose of the experiment is unclear. It is rather the questioner who kidnapped sentient beings for the purpose of 'amusement'.
"What the……. Sigh."
The answer 'From the 1st to the 89th regression, you bastards fried humans like anchovies' almost came rushing up, but I held it back.
I didn't want the grotesque before my eyes to discover that I was a regressor. Even a small hint could lead to dangerous consequences.
-Deducing that subduing the questioner by force is extremely difficult.
-Establishing a relationship of continuous mutual interaction with the questioner is preferable.
"Oh really. By whose decision?"
-In exchange, we will disclose information the questioner has not asked about. Information directly related to your life.
The Fairy Lord moved its mouth slowly, perhaps excessively so.
-What you call ■■■ is not ■■■.
Static. At the same time the fairy's mouth moved, a sound like an antique radio rang in my head.
I furrowed my brow.
"…What did you just say?"
-What you call ■■■ is, ■■■, ■■■, ■■■, is not ■■■.
Static, crackle- The noise only grew worse. The valley between my eyebrows deepened even further.
"Stop. It's noisy. If this is some kind of prank, quit it right now."
-…….
From the gaps in the building debris, dozens of Fairy Lords poked their heads out here and there, looking at each other.
-Failure. The entity's contamination level observed at over 99%.
-Abandoning Operation B. Judging it difficult to redirect the direction of anger by hostileizing a specific entity. Mental brainwashing of a stronger level than the opposing entity is impossible.
-Initiating Operation C.
"……."
I started contemplating how to annihilate this bizarre collective entity called the Fairy Lord.
"If you keep ignoring and looking down on humans like this, I'm going to……."
-Sharing information. While this entity did not descend the entire Void onto this world, it is true that we are among those closest to the highest rank among the entities you call 'grotesques'.
-Currently, a total of 7 such highest-rank grotesques have been confirmed to exist.
I blinked.
Right. This was the moment I first heard about Level 5, 'Outer God-class' grotesques according to the Library Society classification system.
"Seven highest-rank grotesques?"
-Correct. And the highest-rank grotesques exert strong influence on humans, and accordingly, contamination occurs without them realizing it.
-To use an analogy of grotesques as gods, objects, plants, animals, and humans that can inevitably be called 'disciples' are created. This phenomenon occurs regardless of whether the subjects actually worship the grotesques as gods.
-Faith is unnecessary.
-Among the disciples, even more powerful entities called 'apostles' emerge.
-Naturally, there exists a human awakener corresponding to an 'apostle' for this entity, the 'Fairy Lord'.
I tilted my head.
"Uh, that's interesting information, but…… why are you suddenly telling me this?"
-There is a high probability that you already know this entity's apostle.
-Cheon Yo-hwa.
I froze.
Countless fairies, the single Fairy Lord, gazed intently at my face from various angles like a spider's eyes.
-Tutorial Dungeon Baekhwa Girls' High School.
-The survivor there, Cheon Yo-hwa, is this entity 'Fairy Lord's chosen apostle.
An infinite regressor telling a story.