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Chapter 106 – The Pedestrian IV
Chapter 106 – The Pedestrian IV
[Proofreader – Gun]
Chapter 106
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The Pedestrian IV
The “strategy” continued to unfold.
It was like a chaotic chess game on a board.
Black represented the anomalies. White represented humans.
Unlike a typical chess game with a set number of pieces, the Inunaki Tunnel had an innumerable number of pieces.
The tunnel had devoured tunnels across Japan. This meant it had consumed all the fear and legends associated with those places. There were more than enough chess pieces to place on the board, as numerous as the ghost stories.
On the other hand, we humans had only 72 pawns. Yet, I did not act hastily.
After all, my chess pieces were replenished with each turn. Even if I failed this time, I could simply press the “continue” button to keep the game going.
With more knowledge and richer strategies.
[An explorer has died.]
[Over.]
[Advance.]
Turn 141, 142, 143, 144, 145.
Over five turns, I strategized against the Inunaki Tunnel. However, I didn’t invest all my time solely in the tunnel.
Leisurely. While hunting other anomalies, I merely expended the 72 convicts.
As the turns accumulated, the game of tactics increasingly favored me. No more convicts died at the tunnel entrance. Fewer were mesmerized by the graffiti.
The records of the battle between the anomaly and me, the chess game, remained intact as strategies.
Thus.
[Exit sighted visually.]
[Doctor Jang, Convict 66 has died approximately 20 meters from the exit. Right before dying, he looked back.]
I gripped the radio.
“He just looked back and showed no other unusual behavior?”
[Yes.]
“Then it seems the myth of Orpheus has been mixed in. In the myth, Orpheus’s lover was dragged to death because he looked back when the exit was in sight… Such strange adaptations of myths into anomalies happen often.”
[Ah.]
“I’ll add a note to the strategy that one must never look back once the exit is in sight. Saintess, was that convict the last of the expedition team?”
[Yes. There are no more available convicts. Will you postpone it to the next turn?]
I shook my head.
“No. With just 20 meters left, we’ll finish it this time. It’s best if the operation’s managers complete the final stretch. To verify our strategy…”
I glanced back.
“And for the reputation of the Association.”
Yoo Jiwon, Manyo Neko, and Void Blade, three awakened ones, were looking at me.
“Jiwon, stay here and keep monitoring the map. Just keep your eyes on the map.”
“Yes, sir. I will watch the operations map without blinking.”
“That’s unnecessary. Anyway…”
I met the eyes of the two magical girls. Their gazes held various emotions.
Nervousness. Wondering if they had left the extermination almost entirely to the Korean Peninsula’s awakened ones.
Excitement. Perhaps the chance to deliver the final blow to the anomaly that had plagued the Japanese archipelago for so long had finally arrived.
Sadness and guilt.
This emotion needed no explanation. It wasn’t directed at us or the living humans.
“Let’s go. Manyo Neko, Void Blade.”
“…”
“Let’s avenge your comrades.”
Their eyes turned icy.
Soon, the final expedition team set off.
8
“We were careless in the first extermination operation.”
Plop. Plop.
The sound of human footsteps echoed down the pitch-black tunnel walls like rainwater. Mud splashed onto the shoes of the magical girls.
“Well, it seemed tame since it didn’t spew out anomalies or cause any disturbances like other creatures that wreak havoc on towns and cities. It felt relatively weak in comparison, didn’t it?”
[Five shrines around Nagoya and Kyoto combined forces to form the first extermination squad. At the time, no one imagined it would become the ‘first.’]
“My childhood friend was in that extermination squad.”
[He was a friend of mine too.]
Plop.
Outside, the cicada cries from the distant hills were deafening, but inside the tunnel, there was an ominous silence.
As their footsteps reverberated off the walls, the strange graffiti seemed to squirm like bioluminescent worms. However, no one glanced at the patterns.
“The star-leads-the-dawn.”
As the darkness deepened, Manyo Neko lightly shook her umbrella. The outside of the umbrella glowed faintly blue.
It was magic. Before the unparalleled witch Tang Seorin single-handedly developed the Song Spell, Word Segment Magic was known as the only way to cast spells in this world.
This magic assembled words to materialize the caster’s mental image, and the rank of a wizard was determined by how many words they could weave together simultaneously.
“Even after the second, third, and fourth extermination squads were organized, the outcomes were similar. Ah, look at this.”
Manyo Neko pointed the tip of her umbrella to the ground.
On the relatively undisturbed concrete floor, there were Japanese characters inscribed. Most were damaged, but some were still legible.
– Die.
– I hate it. I don’t want to be here anymore. Where did everyone go? Why am I left alone? Die. LCNA. 1199.
– I leave this for future explorers or Association members. First, do not walk in the center. Do not listen to the sounds from the center, and if you sense someone’s presence.
– Please save me.
When Manyo Neko lifted the umbrella, the characters on the ground were once again swallowed by the eternal darkness.
“These are all traces of the previous extermination squads.”
[This was the Gamma Point, wasn’t it?]
“Yes. We decided to leave markers in the relatively safe zones within the Inunaki Tunnel.”
They, too, attempted to create strategies. Just like I did.
“But the ‘relatively safe zones’ are not ‘completely safe zones.’ The fourth extermination squad was annihilated following these guidelines.”
“…Document contamination occurred.”
“Exactly. This bastard didn’t do anything during the third extermination squad, but started messing with things when the fourth squad came along.”
It wasn’t rare for anomalies to mimic human language from the void. Not just language, but voices, behaviors, and appearances were often imitated.
Just like now.
– Manyo Neko!
– Void Blade? It’s really you, right?
– I knew you’d come to save us!
– My disciple, you’ve always made me proud. I knew I could count on you.
Void Blade gave a cold smile. Although her mute mouth emitted no sound of mockery, the coldness of her smile was all the more apparent.
[What a load of crap.]
“Do you know them?”
[Aah, they were my comrades and my mentor. The leader of the fourth extermination squad, whose lower half was found at Gamma Point, but at least his voice is intact.]
Plop.
The magical girls walked without looking back.
Suddenly, the sound of our footsteps felt like muted screams.
The anomaly pulled out all sorts of traps, but none of us were deceived. The “Inunaki Tunnel Strategy,” recorded from 1 to 77, guided us to the exit.
The moment we saw the light in the distance.
– Manyo Neko.
Out of nowhere, an arm shot out from behind us, as if to embrace us.
A cute bracelet adorned the wrist, and frills decorated the sleeve.
[Proofreader – Gun]
– What’s wrong? Grab my hand.
– Didn’t you come to save us? What about the Association? Did headquarters abandon us?
– Let’s go back together, Manyo Neko. No, Rika.
The faces of the always-calm magical girls slightly cracked.
– We promised to gather again when the first snow fell this year at Mount Yahiko, remember?
“……”
– I still remember our promise, Rika.
Manyo Neko stopped walking.
Both she and I knew that looking back here would end everything.
However, instead of reminding her of this, I remained silent. Void Blade also refrained from using her telepathy magic.
“…This really sucks.”
Her murmur echoed in the tunnel.
“That promise was from seven years ago. Damn it, you left for the extermination squad without even defining what counts as the first snow. Is it the first snow in Hokkaido? Or does it have to snow in the village where we were? It was a terrible promise.”
– ……
“So, when it snowed in Hokkaido, when it snowed in the village, when it snowed in your hometown, I went up to Mount Yahiko three times. It was a hell of a journey each time. And you weren’t there. It was so cold, I thought I would die.”
– ……
“Yo, where and how did you die that not even a piece of your body was found? And now you’re luring innocent people in this damned tunnel? What happened to your promise to serve the gods and protect people? You’re a real piece of work.”
The sight I saw then is still vivid.
The hand that had reached out from behind us, merely stirring the air, gently clasped Manyo Neko’s hand.
Fingers intertwined.
– I’m sorry. Let’s go back together.
“……”
– Rika.
The sound of human voices trickled down the pitch-black tunnel walls like rainwater. It was raining heavily.
Plop.
We walked.
The light came closer. The mossy and corpse-like smells that had tormented our noses gradually gave way to the scent of leaves. As the muted screams turned into the sound of cicadas,
[We’ve arrived. Doctor Jang.]
We emerged from the tunnel.
Without exchanging many words, and almost simultaneously, we all looked back. The tunnel’s entrance, once inscribed with “Inunaki,” now bore a different name.
Soroji Tunnel.
[PR/N: It literally translates to ‘back alley’ or ‘narrow lane’ tunnel.]
This was the original name of the tunnel before it was consumed and hollowed out by the anomaly.
Beneath this name, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of corpses lay scattered beyond the tunnel.
“……”
“……”
Most of the corpses wore the flamboyant outfits of magical girls. However, their dresses were rotting, blackened by the muddy toxin and worn down by time.
Manyo Neko knelt before a corpse missing one arm.
I later learned that Manyo Neko had also been part of the first extermination squad but survived because she was assigned to wait outside the tunnel.
The anomaly: Inunaki Tunnel.
Alias: Sanzu River, Hell Gallery, Orpheus’ Path to the Underworld.
Danger Level: Lv.3 Continent-class.
Extermination completed.
9
Epilogue, First
While all tunnels across the Japanese archipelago returned to normal, the undersea tunnel crossing the Korea Strait inexplicably remained.
Of course, “remained” only in the sense that it could be used if one strictly adhered to the strategy guidelines. All the dangers that once belonged to the Inunaki Tunnel now resided in the undersea tunnel.
Noh Doha furrowed his brow.
“It’s strange. The undersea tunnel was a fictional structure, so it should have disappeared…”
“I don’t know. Even as an anomaly expert, I don’t know everything.”
“Hmmm…”
Noh Doha frowned at the undersea tunnel peeking out from the waters off Busan.
“Well, if worse comes to worst, it could be seen as an additional means to interact with that side…”
The story related to this undersea tunnel will be told in the next episode.
10
Epilogue, Second
From the 145th turn onward, I made a point to visit the Japanese archipelago early on each time.
The purpose was simple. To preemptively exterminate the Inunaki Tunnel and prevent numerous casualties from the Association.
Of course, another goal was to farm my precious spirit camera.
So, in the 146th turn, after obtaining the camera and arriving at the Inunaki Tunnel, I sensed a familiar presence approaching from afar.
“Huh? A visitor?”
It was Manyo Neko.
Her face was slightly younger and more inexperienced than in the previous turn.
So, in her hand, instead of an umbrella, there was something else.
“What should we do, Yo? The high priestess ordered us to seal off the tunnel entrance.”
“Shouldn’t we just warn them to back off?”
“Yes, but they seem very powerful… Ah. They seem to have noticed us too.”
“It’s dangerous, so step back, Rika.”
I raised both hands to show I meant no harm and approached.
A magical girl with black hair, contrasting with Manyo Neko’s golden locks, was staring at me.
“Who are you? I haven’t seen you before. You’re not from the village, are you? This area is off-limits to civilians starting today. A missing person report came in.”
“I’m an awakened one from Korea.”
“Korea…? Why would someone from Korea come here?”
Hmm.
Her eyes were filled with suspicion and vigilance. But as Doctor Jang, I was adept at making friends.
About four minutes and four bags of snacks passed between us.
“Delicious!”
“Chocolate after so many days… The genuine taste of cacao, the distinct quality…”
“Ah, I’m melting…”
“So, are we friends now?”
“Yay! We’re friends!”
The magical girls diligently strung golden ropes around the tunnel entrance. After repeatedly emphasizing that I must never enter, they leisurely departed.
The sun was setting. I watched the two holding hands and walking away for quite some time.
“…Should I capture this moment?”
Click.
Lifting the spirit camera, I snapped a photo of the Inunaki Tunnel purely on a whim.
I wanted to commemorate this moment.
With a buzzing sound, the photo developed. Since the Inunaki Tunnel hadn’t yet devoured all the tunnels in Japan, the photo was much calmer than before.
There were no corpses of magical girls or dismembered limbs grotesquely displayed.
Just a stone wall blocking the tunnel entrance.
There, in bright red letters, it was written:
– Come back soon. It’s already the 7th time.
My body froze for a moment with the camera still raised.
Cicadas chirped in the cedar forest.
…It wasn’t just the eerie pretense that the anomaly seemed to know about my repeated regressions that startled me.
Such a pretense could easily be achieved by an illusion capable of showing one’s deepest fears. An anomaly with advanced illusionary abilities like the Inunaki Tunnel could certainly do that.
The real issue lay elsewhere.
The first time I encountered the Inunaki Tunnel was in the 141st turn. Then the 142nd, 143rd, 144th, 145th… Finally, I returned here in the 146th turn.
In total, six times.
But the Inunaki Tunnel greeted me, claiming it was the “7th time” we met.
Where had the other encounter gone?
– Pedestrian. The End.
[Proofreader – Gun]