Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: An Unlucky Day (2)
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***
Boy, forgive me for placing such a heavy burden upon you.
The radiant Angel had said those words as he placed a hand on my shoulder. It was a warm, gentle touch.
However, know that all of this was a necessary sacrifice. It had to be sealed away.
The Angel's voice was a mere whisper, and his form was so faint it seemed he might vanish at any moment.
I hadn't realized it then, but now I knew.
The Angel was dying. He had used up every last bit of his power, even the strength meant for himself, to create the seal.
If it were ever unleashed, it would bring a catastrophe beyond comparison to the tragedy that unfolded in this city today… Boy.
Please, protect the seal. It will be a path of hardship, crushing your body and tormenting your mind… but know that this is the righteous path, the one that saves the world.
With those final words, the Angel pushed me deep into the earth.
Beneath the ruins of the city, into the deepest underground, he buried me to hide the seal's existence from the world.
That must have been his final arrangement. The best way to seal something is to ensure no one even knows it was sealed.
'Angel…'
Naturally, the seal was far beyond what a mere boy like me could endure.
In the sticky darkness where I couldn't even tell what lay before me, I couldn't so much as twitch a finger. The worst prison imaginable.
There was nothing to soothe the intense fear and loneliness. Whenever the agony became unbearable, I recalled the Angel's plea just before the sealing.
Protect the seal. For the sake of the world.
That was the light guiding my heart, my sole support. When even that wasn't enough, I stopped thinking altogether.
If I emptied my mind and became like a tree or a rock, time passed remarkably well.
But no matter how long I endured… it never faded.
In fact, the underground seal gave way first.
I couldn't blame the Angel. He never could have foreseen the seal breaking like this.
Who would have thought a massive tunnel boring machine digging the subway would tear it apart?
Boss! Over here! Come check this out!
What the… it's a kid's corpse.
Looks like someone dumped it at the construction site. Better report it to the cops first.
Damn, gotta clean up a body right after eating… Huh? Boss, this one's breathing!
The first to find me, freed from the seal, were the cleanup crew at the construction site.
Bottom-feeders who would haul away anything for the right price, from household trash to corpses.
No resident registration, can't talk, no name… Think he was trafficked?
Come on, can't you tell by his eye color? That yellowish tint like gold—definitely a kid kidnapped from beyond the dimensional gates!
So what now, boss? Turn him over to the cops or an orphanage?
Nah, we'll take him in.
But boss, we've already got nine mouths to feed…
Send him to an orphanage like this, and he'll end up in some rich old bastard's bed 100%. If we'd ignored him from the start, fine—but we found him, so we take responsibility.
The cleanup crew could have left me amid the trash or shipped me off to an orphanage.
If they'd been greedy, they could have sold me to human traffickers for a big payout.
But they didn't. Instead, they welcomed a kid with nothing into their fold and made me family.
James hyung, always so kind.
Deokbae Uncle, who I'd hit up PC bangs and pool halls with.
Chunsik Brother, sharing comics with me.
And the foreman, who taught me so much about life…
We weren't bound by blood, but the kindness they showed ran thicker than that. Looking back, the time with them might have been the happiest of my life.
Yet I couldn't repay even a tenth of the happiness they gave me.
Because of that thing the Angel had sealed within me…
『What a ridiculously long life-flashing montage.』
After the underground seal broke, it constantly eyed me. It sought to shatter the seal and seize my body.
『When the hell does this end?』
But the seal left by the Angel, who had steeled himself for oblivion, held firm. No matter how it rattled my body and the seal, it never crumbled.
Still, it didn't stop. As if determined to claim my body, it dragged on this tedious, agonizing battle of wills. Stealing my senses, ruining my sleep, inflicting pain…
Years passed. I grew from boy to young man, growing numb to its torments.
And in that moment, we both realized it: as long as I lived, the seal would never break.
『A guy with such a fierce attachment to life, and he lived this pathetically?』
The instant it grasped that truth, it changed tactics. Instead of assaulting the seal, it tried to seduce me.
Like the serpent tempting Adam and Eve, it slithered into the cracks of my heart, pouring out filthy temptations.
Money, fame, power…
I tried to ignore them. But each time, its lures grew more specific.
Do you crave gold? Serve me, and I'll make you a gold mine.
Want to kill that insolent fool? Kneel to me, and I'll grant you power unmatched by any.
Desire the woman on TV? Offer more tribute. Then every woman will lie beneath you.
Sometimes, when life felt unbearably harsh… I was tempted to give in. But I held out to the end.
To honor the Angel's courage in facing oblivion and the kindness of the comrades who took me in—for the sake of the world…
『Enough.』
『It's time to open your eyes.』
『My chosen one.』
***
Cool night air brushed my face.
My neck ached as if I'd just woken from a long sleep. And…
'…Rotten stench?'
Dung Beetle lifted his heavy eyelids. It must not be morning yet—pure darkness surrounded him.
"Where… am I? Foreman? James hyung? Where is everyone?"
He pressed a hand to the ground to stand, then froze.
The sensation at his fingertips… So familiar, his gaze dropped instinctively.
'Damn it.'
Only then did Dung Beetle realize he lay atop a pile of corpses.
He swallowed his panic and rose.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark, the surroundings came into hazy view.
The vast space, like a huge warehouse, brimmed with an immense number of bodies. Hundreds at least, over a thousand maybe.
'…Why the hell am I here?'
Dung Beetle racked his brain to piece it together. Where was this? Why was he here? Where were his comrades?
'I remember nothing. What was I doing before blacking out?'
His memories were like a snapped film reel, hopelessly blurred. No point dwelling.
He decided to escape first and climbed down the corpse pile. Or tried to.
The moment he spotted something caught on a corpse's finger as he gripped it to descend, his eyes locked on.
A gold ring on the corpse's finger.
"This…"
It resembled the ring Deokbae Uncle cherished as his mother's keepsake.
"…Just a resemblance."
The familiar work clothes, the gas mask just like his…
"No way."
Muttering words he couldn't believe himself, Dung Beetle lifted the corpse.
It was light. No way this featherweight was Deokbae Uncle, who could devour five servings of meat in one sitting.
But only after hoisting it fully did he notice the body was sliced in half, something having sheared it clean.
'No.'
Denying all evidence, Dung Beetle carefully removed the gas mask. The gruesome truth stared back.
"Deokbae… Uncle…?"
There was Deokbae Uncle's face, always smiling. But now, rigid in rigor mortis, no smile remained.
Terror and pain.
The emotions he'd felt in his final moments were etched there forever.
"…"
Unthinkingly, Dung Beetle checked the surrounding corpses. Around where he'd woken, they were all cleanup crew in gas masks and work clothes.
"James hyung? Chunsik Brother…?"
Approaching one, he pulled off the mask to reveal a familiar face.
James hyung's corpse had a hole punched through his throat.
Chunsik Brother's chest was slashed long.
The foreman's body… was too horrific to describe.
"D-Dream? Th-this is a dream, right?"
For some reason, a chill crept over him. Dung Beetle hugged himself, desperately waiting for the dream to end.
"Tomorrow's payday. Gotta wake up soon…"
But no matter how long he waited, the dream persisted.
"…Ah."
Only after an eternity did a buried memory surface.
The boss, extra pissy today. The gruesome scene. Commie elf and thug corpses. And…
That face, smirking without even wiping the splattered blood from his cheek.
"…Player."
A hammer blow to the head.
Superhuman moves like on TV, screaming comrades, silent alarms, a blade thrusting at his throat.
The shards of his final memory stabbed Dung Beetle's brain like broken pottery.
"I… I died…?"
Recalling that last instant, Dung Beetle touched his neck.
It was crusted with dried blood, but that was it. No gash from the blade.
As if his throat had never been slit.
"What the hell is… this…."
Happening?
The words died unspoken. Footsteps—thud, thud—approached from nearby, along with an unfamiliar presence.
Dung Beetle clamped his mouth shut and slipped carefully between the corpses. A bad feeling crawled up his spine.
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