63 - Fairy Tale

TL/Editor: raei Schedule: 5/week

Illustrations: None.

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Lee Yeonwoo stumbled, his heart racing as if he'd just sprinted a marathon. A dizzying sense of danger overwhelmed him. Even in this pristine white sanctuary, the world seemed to bleed red with peril.

A voice echoed in his mind.

"Come forward."

He took a step without thinking, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Then, in an instant-

"Ughk!"

Yeonwoo bit his tongue hard. Blood gushed out, staining his throat crimson. The searing pain blurred the line between life and death.

He spat out the severed flesh and crushed it underfoot, then slowly raised his head. His eyes, distorted by the pain in his brain and some strange compelling force, looked ahead.

The employee and team leader were already several steps away, their backs to Yeonwoo.

He wiped the blood from his mouth with his gun hand, then raised it toward the ceiling.

His hand shook violently from the pain.

But he had no trouble pulling the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots echoed in quick succession. The employee seemed not to hear, stumbling forward, but the team leader suddenly shuddered.

"F-f-f*ck," he stammered.

Whack!

He struck his face hard with his fist. Once, twice, three times. His face swollen, the team leader spat out a tooth and muttered, "Damn it all. Do you know how much teeth cost?"

He looked around with bloodshot eyes. The high-ranking employees lined up in the sanctuary stood silently watching the altar, as if they hadn't heard a thing.

Yeonwoo was in bad shape. His eyes were bloodshot, and his mouth was still bleeding. In this state, he turned his gaze to the altar.

Five anomalies stood atop the high altar, arranged in a 'ㅅ' shape.

At the outer edges were a primitive-looking being, as if a monkey and human had been merged then split, and a large cockroach waving its antennae.

Inside them were the Gold Dragon he'd seen on the second basement floor and a floating parchment.

The North Wind and Sun.

Finally, Yeonwoo looked at the anomaly standing in the center.

'A tree person?'

It was a large tree, ancient-looking. Its arms were made of branches, its legs of roots. A kind old man's face was set into the trunk.

It smiled benevolently.

"Excellent," it said.

Yeonwoo felt a surge of joy at the praise. An indescribable happiness.

As his face began to relax into a smile, he coughed up blood and snapped back to reality.

"F*ck this," he slurred, his severed tongue making speech difficult. But he ignored it. Action was what mattered now.

He moved the gun, ready to fire and empty the entire magazine.

But something sensed his intentions and moved first.

"Foolish mortal," a voice said.

Ting! Ti-ting!

The Gold Dragon's tail lashed out. Bullets ricocheted off its golden scales, leaving scratches on the sanctuary floor, pillars, and ceiling.

Click. Click.

The magazine was empty. Yeonwoo tossed the gun aside and reached into his bag. His fingers brushed past various tools before stopping on the water gun.

He hesitated, then pulled it out, muttering a curse.

'Damn it. Nothing useful. Too many anomalies, and even more people.'

He considered using the torch to set a fire, but the sanctuary was made of marble. The chainsaw or hammer would be useless against the society employees.

In the end, he had only two options.

'Either spray myself with the rainwater to try for an enhancement. Or keep rolling the dice.'

He pointed the water gun at his head.

After a moment's thought, he rubbed his bloodied tongue against the roof of his mouth. Pain shot from the root of his tongue to his brain.

'I'll try everything I can.'

He decided to start with the dice, attempting persuasion-

"Stop," the tree person said. "We mean you no harm."

Yeonwoo's thoughts froze. His eyes glazed over until the pain jolted him back to his senses.

He twisted his lips into a grimace. "Oh yeah? Then how about you stop this mind control crap first? We can't exactly talk like this, can we?"

The dice clattered.

Failure!

The tree person rustled its leaves. The sound rolled in like waves, and a gentle mental pressure enveloped Yeonwoo's mind.

"That won't do," it said. "You're far too dangerous. Besides, my control is weak. You can resist it with pain alone."

Yeonwoo laughed bitterly.

Weak? While controlling an entire department and commanding other anomalies? What nonsense.

The tree person seemed to read his thoughts.

"I'm not controlling them," it said. "I merely showed them the future and promised them salvation."

Future and salvation. Yeonwoo could guess what that meant.

He felt a twinge of boredom.

Wasn't this just another rehash of the same old story?

Some vague talk about climate anomalies threatening Earth, the need to defeat them, and preparing to survive.

"I know all that," he said. "But I'm not about to become your slave when there are other-"

"No," the tree person interrupted. "You don't know. You must join us."

Just then, the society director stepped forward. He turned to face Yeonwoo, his back to the altar and the anomalies.

"You don't know the future," he said grimly.

"Bullsh*t. I know plenty," the team leader retorted.

He strode up to the director and grabbed his collar, glaring at him nose-to-nose.

"Climate anomalies, preservation plans. But that doesn't mean we bow down to these freaks, does it? You crazy bastard. You call yourself a company man?"

"A company..." the director murmured.

He stared at the team leader with dark eyes, then turned slightly to look at Yeonwoo. Their eyes met despite the distance.

"The company will fail," he said quietly.

"...What?"

The team leader's voice was filled with disbelief.

The director shook off his hand, then bowed to the tree person on the altar.

"O Prophet," he said. "Show them the future. The future after climate anomalies strike and the company abandons Earth."

"It shall be done," the tree person replied.

A strange hissing filled the air, though not a breath of wind stirred in the sanctuary.

As the tree person shook its branches, Yeonwoo heard the sound of rushing water. A wave of mental energy washed over him.

"Behold the future," the tree person intoned.

Everything went black.

---

---

The world had changed.

Yeonwoo found himself standing atop the rubble of a collapsed building. He instinctively reached for a weapon, but he was wearing only a suit with no equipment.

A voice rang out.

"Look to the sky."

Yeonwoo tilted his head back. His mouth fell open in shock.

"That's..." S~ᴇaʀᴄh the N0vᴇlFire(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

The Milky Way stretched across the daytime sky. A swarm of twinkling stars streaked rapidly overhead, creating a breathtaking spectacle.

The tree person's voice continued:

"The graveyard of humanity's fallen hopes."

"What do you mean?" Yeonwoo asked.

"It's space debris," the voice explained. "When climate anomalies struck, governments launched refugee ships into space. One ship collided with debris, triggering a chain reaction. All satellites, space stations, and refugee ships were destroyed. The sky is now sealed off."

Suddenly, the sky turned blood-red. A massive chunk of steel hurtled towards Yeonwoo, its long tail blazing. The wreckage of a spaceship filled the sky.

Through the flames, he caught a glimpse of the word "HOPE" on its side.

There was no time to dodge, no way to escape.

A massive shockwave erupted, and the ground beneath him buckled. As Yeonwoo instinctively curled up-

The world shifted again.

He slowly lowered his arms from his face. He had regained his composure now.

'It's just an illusion,' he reminded himself.

Yeonwoo calmly surveyed his new surroundings.

"Where am I now?" he wondered aloud.

He was floating high above an unfamiliar mountain range. Looking down, he saw a strange sight.

A perfectly rectangular cliff cut across the mountains. It was so deep that darkness pooled at its bottom, impossible to see.

It looked as if a giant eraser had made a single stroke across the landscape.

"Earth's final shelter," the voice said.

Yeonwoo's eyebrows twitched. "This is supposed to be our last hope?"

"A powerful doomsday cultist erased it," the voice explained. "Claiming humanity must go extinct."

Yeonwoo examined the scarred mountains with a hollow expression.

In this world, humans no longer existed. Instead, the primitive beings and giant cockroaches he'd seen at the altar now swarmed the mountains.

"The next intelligent species after humanity," the voice said. "But sadly, they won't become Earth's dominant species. The sky is sealed, and the planet's resources are depleted. And..."

The scene changed once more.

This time, Yeonwoo found himself on a vast plain.

Two enormous blue portals soared into the sky, seeming to pierce the heavens themselves.

"What is this?" he asked.

"One-way portals connected to two migration sites," the voice replied. "Or more accurately, lids for trash cans."

The portals rippled. Massive, grotesque monsters poured out, raising their heads to roar at the sky before hurling themselves back at the portals.

But they simply passed through like ghosts, unable to return.

"The company can't maintain migration sites with just a million people," the voice continued. "They can't handle the anomalies."

"So these portals..."

"Are lids for trash cans. They dump unmanageable anomalies here, using Earth as their dumping ground."

With each shift of the world, another hope was extinguished. Yeonwoo felt as if reality itself was crumbling around him. His heart sank.

His hands trembled as he asked urgently, "What about the Mars base? The Ark?"

"The Mars base was destroyed by resource depletion and civil war," the voice answered. "With the sky sealed, they lost hope of returning to Earth. Unable to receive enough supplies, they fought amongst themselves until all perished."

"And the Ark?"

"It's in hibernation, waiting for Earth to recover. But will Earth ever recover?"

Suddenly, Yeonwoo's view shot upwards. He rocketed high into the sky. The portals shrank to pinpricks, then the plains, then Earth itself.

Space debris orbited the planet like Saturn's rings. A frozen corpse drifted by in the cold vacuum.

Yeonwoo looked at the body, then down at Earth. It was as clear as if seen through a telescope.

Blue oceans and green continents.

All covered by countless anomalies.

This future Earth was no longer the planet of humans. It had become the domain of anomalies.

"What about me?" Yeonwoo asked quietly. "What happened to me in all this?"