[Proofreader – Gun]
Chapter 106
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The Pedestrian IV
The “strategy” continued to unfold.
It was like a chaotic chess ga on a board.
Black represented the anomalies. White represented humans.
Unlike a typical chess ga with a set number of pieces, the Inunaki Tunnel had an innurable number of pieces.
The tunnel had devoured tunnels across Japan. This ant it had consud all the fear and legends associated with those places. There were more than enough chess pieces to place on the board, as nurous 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 ti, I could simply press the “continue” button to keep the ga 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 ti solely in the tunnel.
Leisurely. While hunting other anomalies, I rely expended the 72 convicts.
As the turns accumulated, the ga of tactics increasingly favored . No more convicts died at the tunnel entrance. Fewer were srized by the graffiti.
The records of the battle between the anomaly and , the chess ga, remained intact as strategies.
Thus.
[Exit sighted visually.]
[Doctor Jang, Convict 66 has died approximately 20 ters 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 ters left, we’ll finish it this ti. 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 .
“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 t 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.
Excitent. 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 seed ta 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 ti, no one imagined it would beco 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 seed 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 Segnt Magic was known as the only way to cast spells in this world.
This magic assembled words to materialize the caster’s ntal 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 outcos 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 so 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 mbers. First, do not walk in the center. Do not listen to the sounds from the center, and if you sense soone’s presence.
– Please save .
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.”
“…Docunt contamination occurred.”
“Exactly. This bastard didn’t do anything during the third extermination squad, but started ssing with things when the fourth squad ca 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 co to save us!
– My disciple, you’ve always made 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 ntor. 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 mont 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 co 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, rember?
“……”
– I still rember 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 hotown, I went up to Mount Yahiko three tis. It was a hell of a journey each ti. 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, rely 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 ca closer. The mossy and corpse-like slls that had tornted 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 erged 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 na.
Soroji Tunnel.
[PR/N: It literally translates to ‘back alley’ or ‘narrow lane’ tunnel.]
This was the original na of the tunnel before it was consud and hollowed out by the anomaly.
Beneath this na, 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 ti.
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 cos to worst, it could be seen as an additional ans 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 ti.
The purpose was simple. To preemptively exterminate the Inunaki Tunnel and prevent nurous casualties from the Association.
Of course, another goal was to farm my precious spirit cara.
So, in the 146th turn, after obtaining the cara 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 sothing 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 ant no harm and approached.
A magical girl with black hair, contrasting with Manyo Neko’s golden locks, was staring at .
“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 ca in.”
“I’m an awakened one from Korea.”
“Korea…? Why would soone from Korea co 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 lting…”
“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 so ti.
“…Should I capture this mont?”
Click.
Lifting the spirit cara, I snapped a photo of the Inunaki Tunnel purely on a whim.
I wanted to commorate this mont.
With a buzzing sound, the photo developed. Since the Inunaki Tunnel hadn’t yet devoured all the tunnels in Japan, the photo was much calr than before.
There were no corpses of magical girls or dismbered limbs grotesquely displayed.
Just a stone wall blocking the tunnel entrance.
There, in bright red letters, it was written:
– Co back soon. It’s already the 7th ti.
My body froze for a mont with the cara still raised.
Cicadas chirped in the cedar forest.
…It wasn’t just the eerie pretense that the anomaly seed to know about my repeated regressions that startled .
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 ti 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 tis.
But the Inunaki Tunnel greeted , claiming it was the “7th ti” we t.
Where had the other encounter gone?
– Pedestrian. The End.
[Proofreader – Gun]
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