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Chapter 171

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The Diver III

"...Frog sounds."

Lee Hayul shivered.

Instinctively, she flexed and relaxed her fingers repeatedly, as if the sensation of the frog\'s mucous membrane was still clinging somewhere between them.

"Did I... turn into a frog?"

Though Lee Hayul appeared young, she was a veteran who had followed me in exploring many voids. Even for a seasoned veteran like her, a six-second transformation of the human body was enough to leave severe trauma.

I gently grasped Hayul\'s hand.

"Ah."

Our body heat was exchanged. We, primates who had evolved to let go of the freedom of swimming underwater, were now able to hold each other\'s hands.

"Your body is cold. Raise your aura and dry off the moisture. It might look like ordinary water, but every drop of it is filled with void poison."

"...Okay."

Lee Hayul\'s hair was tinted with golden aura. Her drenched brown hair quickly dried.

But the drying process was peculiar. Rather than ‘water evaporating,’ the description ‘transparent water-like bugs burning up and evaporating’ fit the reality better.

Wriggle, wriggle.

The golden aura roasted the bugs, constantly wriggling in the shape of raindrops.

The water bugs desperately tried to twist their bodies to crawl into the gaps of Lee Hayul\'s brown hair, trying to avoid the aura. But they were soon charred and released steam.

"Ugh..."

Lee Hayul shuddered. Even in her eyes, which were usually extremely reserved in expressing emotions, there was a clear sign of disgust.

"The water is like bugs. The water is bugs. Is this kind of water running inside my body too?"

"Don\'t scratch your arms. If you scratch too hard, you\'ll bleed, and then your blood will start looking like bugs too. Once the blood starts forming in raindrop shapes, it\'s over."

"...You sound like you\'ve been through this a lot."

Well, of course, I had been through it a lot.

I, Hayul, and the others had witnessed people turning into frogs or bleeding to death out of fear and disgust towards water at least five times.

It took one attempt to realize that when a massive flood occurs, if it\'s not guided towards Busan, the Japanese archipelago or the Korean Peninsula would sink.

It took two attempts to realize that even if guided towards Busan, without preparing facilities and spells like an ark, we\'d be helplessly drowned by the tsunami.

And it took another attempt to realize that even with an ark, without the act of "bailing out water," we\'d be submerged.

"When I was submerged and turning into a frog, I felt strange."

Lee Hayul murmured. Although her hair was dry, her eyes seemed to be shadowed by water.

"It was a nostalgic feeling. A happy feeling. I couldn\'t breathe, not just through my nose or mouth, but through my whole body... It felt like I was breathing through my skin, and just by breathing, my entire being felt pierced through. It felt like I became one with the world-."

"Stop thinking about it. You\'ll get entranced."

I tightened my grip on her hand.

Suddenly, clarity returned to Lee Hayul\'s eyes. I met her gaze directly.

"Let\'s go. We need to help the others."

"..."

"The puppet strings over there are severed. If you find any strings cut along the way, restore them as we move."

Nod.

Lee Hayul\'s chin moved slightly.

Water had risen up to our calves in the hallway, hindering our walking. Splash, splash. As we walked, water droplets, which were actually bugs, scattered and fled in all directions.

Lee Hayul shook her head and gently touched the puppet strings. The golden aura spread throughout the ark along the spider silk.

"How is it, Hayul? Are you getting any signals from the puppet strings?"

"...No issues in quarantine zones 15, 21, and 37."

Beep. Beep-beep. Beep, beep.

Beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep.

Not long after Lee Hayul sent out her aura, various auras returned from all directions. These were signals sent by the managers of each quarantine zone.

The sound of the spider silk connected to the entire massive ship transmitting Morse code was like the heartbeat of the ark.

Lee Hayul, who was linked to its arteries and veins, raised her head.

"...No signal from zones 13, 17, 23, and 25. Ah. Zone 25 just sent an OK sign."

"And the others?"

"Silent. No response."

No matter how thoroughly we prepared, casualties were inevitable. Even I couldn\'t be everywhere at once.

We immediately moved to the affected zones.

As soon as we opened the steel door to zone 13, a figure lunged at us like a zombie.

"Uooouoo!"

"....!"

Lee Hayul, startled, reflexively scattered her puppet strings. The figure, whose limbs were instantly bound by spider silk, collapsed with a splash.

"Ugh, ugh. Ugh."

The figure\'s body was half-melted. Instead of bleeding, green skin sprouted from the melted flesh. Each time the skin sprouted, the flesh trembled and emitted a croaking sound.

"Ugh. Ugh, ugh."

It seemed the figure had already lost all intellect and reason. Although their eye sockets were open, their eyes and irises were entirely made of water, constantly spilling water.

"Brother."

The bizarre sight captivated us only for a moment.

Lee Hayul pointed her finger deeper into the 13th quarantine zone.

"Over there."

The space was filled with water.

Even though I had just opened the door, the water filling the room did not spill out.

As if there was an invisible, transparent glass barrier at the threshold, the water remained contained.

And there was no one inside.

Each quarantine zone held anywhere from 100 to 150 people, but...

Floating in the 13th quarantine zone water were only blue, yellow, and pitch-black shirts and pants.

The missing people.

Humans devoured by the Great Void.

The clothes, now without owners, floated like tropical fish in an aquarium.

Croak, croak, croak.

The sound of frogs echoed softly, distorted by the water.

I swallowed hard.

"...As expected, it\'s impossible to prevent the flooding of zone 13."

Zones 4 and 13.

They were notorious disasters.

The command center, where Noh Doha and the other leaders were gathered, corresponded to the 4th quarantine zone. I had entered the most dangerous 4th zone, while veterans were stationed in the 13th zone.

Yet, the 13th quarantine zone couldn\'t avoid total annihilation.

Asking why we didn\'t just leave the room empty was meaningless. In that case, another room would have randomly been designated as the "13th room."

"In the end, if I block the 4th, the 13th gets breached. If I block the 13th, the 4th gets breached. It seems like I have no choice but to reduce the number of zones to 12 or fewer, even if it means taking more risks."

This was a part that needed reinforcement in the next round.

"Let\'s go. To the next area."

"Yeah. ...What about this person?"

"It\'s already too late. Once the bodily transformation has progressed that far, not even Aryeon\'s healing abilities can reverse it. That is no longer human."

"Then, should I kill them?"

"Yes. Step back."

"No."

Hayul shook her head.

"I\'ll do it."

Lee Hayul spread her hand open and then clenched it tightly.

Swoosh!

The body of the victim, wrapped tightly in puppet strings, was torn into hundreds or thousands of pieces. It would be easy to imagine if you\'ve seen the prologue scene from the movie Cube (1997).

The difference from Cube was that instead of the thousands of pieces of flesh falling lifelessly, they immediately turned into a transparent liquid and started jumping around like frogs.

Splash. Ribbit. Splash. Ribbit-.

The frog-like croaking quickly faded away.

Along with it, the water level that had filled the corridor lowered from shin-deep to just above the Achilles tendon.

"......"

Hayul squeezed her forearm tightly.

Fortunately, the other zones had not suffered complete annihilation like the 13th quarantine zone. The rescue operation continued smoothly.

In the 25th quarantine zone, there were 17 drowned or missing persons who had "lost their existence," 21 seriously injured victims who had undergone bodily transformation, and 2 injured due to fights among the survivors.

Thanks to swift action, all of the seriously injured were able to return to human form. This was thanks to the persistent reminders of the "strategies" and "precautions" emphasized in both SGNet and reality.

"....... ......"

However, one of the seriously injured was a bit late in returning to human form.

He was a crusader from the Holy Kingdom of the East, who had come to support Sim Aryeon. He was an awakened one, armed with genuine faith on top of false doctrine.

He had been partially transformed into a frog, not only his fingers but also his toes, thighs, and neck, and had existed in that mutated state for 6 minutes.

Humans are weak. Six minutes is by no means a short time. The brain suffers permanent damage after only 5 minutes without proper blood flow and oxygen during cardiac arrest.

Moreover, the Void Poison affected not only the physical body but also consciousness, mind, and even human memory, dripping its toxins into them.

"Parasites."

The crusader muttered.

"Humans are often said to be like parasites on nature. But isn\'t there also nature that parasitizes humans? Isn\'t blood like a parasite that lives by feeding on me? Everything is made of matter and only matter, and that matter forms boundaries, breeding and harboring other matter. What is freedom? If a parasite escapes its host, its body will perish, but the will to escape exists, even if only for a single moment. Thus, escape from the body is death and freedom at the same time. The leap from matter is a miracle that happens only for a single moment. Whether it was achieved by one\'s own will or by another\'s coercion... there lies the difference..."

"Shut up!"

One of the survivors snapped.

"Someone, make that bastard shut up!"

It wasn\'t just one person. People wrapped in blankets watched the crusader\'s seemingly possessed babbling with increasingly anxious eyes.

The strange thing was that the crusader had never raised his voice.

His confession was actually quite soft. The decibel level would have been no different from the coughing of an elderly person in the corner of the quarantine zone.

Yet all the survivors in the 25th quarantine zone listened to the crusader\'s monologue.

Even the most insensitive person could feel that kind of focus. Just as there is direction in human gaze, there is also direction in hearing.

"Oh, God. No, One who is insufficient to be called just God."

The crusader murmured without concern.

"Not the One who exists within me, but the One I must go out to meet and send off. The body is a prison, and the mind is an escape. Now I understand why escape from the body is called freedom. All matter is like a parasite feeding on other matter. Oh, One, now I too shall return to that place..."

"Kill him!"

Whack. A survivor picked up a can of food and threw it.

Objectively speaking, it was merely an act of violence against a patient muttering to himself in a small voice.

But for some reason, no one tried to stop the violence.

"That bastard, he\'s a monster! He\'s a freak!"

"Shut the hell up, you bastard!"

"Kill him before we all get infected!"

Cans of tuna, water bottles, anything they could grab—they threw everything at the crusader, dozens of survivors flinging objects his way.

Ribbit. Ribbit. Ribbit-ribbit. Ribbit.

Amidst the crusader\'s monologue and the survivors\' shouting, the sound of frogs croaking seeped in.

But no one seemed to hear the croaking, as if they were oblivious to it, each only raising their own voices.

"Enough."

I stepped forward.

Boom, a vibration reverberated through the floor of the vessel and into the quarantine zone. The survivors flinched.

"You are all currently addicted to the Void."

"......"

"I understand. The voices of the constellations that used to care for your mental state have been cut off. The SGNet you were clinging to all day is gone. It\'s a loneliness you’ll have to get used to for a while."

"......"

"Since different zones may experience different levels of existential contamination, the command will continue to maintain quarantine. Please use the puppet room for communication with other zones and the command. At least twice a day, personnel from the command will patrol to check the situation."

I glanced at the crusader. He was still muttering to himself.

"I will escort the contaminated person here to the treatment room. Please remember that this person was an awakened one who came all the way from Pyongyang to support Busan, a place with no ties to him."

"......"

I didn’t scold them further. It wasn’t their fault.

As I carried the crusader out of the quarantine zone, Lee Hayul followed closely behind.

Splash. Splash.

Walking down the corridor, I checked outside the window.

雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨.

A landscape as if we were submerged underwater. The Ark was still completely underwater.

According to the Book of Genesis, the "great flood" lasted 40 days.

And this was only the first day.