118 - Contamination

TL/Editor: raei Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: posted in discord

Join the discord! Here

It seemed too risky to barge in recklessly. There were far too many dangerous individuals around.

Lee Yeonwoo blended into the bustling crowd, gripping a stone and donning a fluorescent vest. Two perception-distorting objects dissolved into the noisy environment.

"Anyone here to attack Korea? Let's decide on our strike points together!"

"I've got exploding rice cookers!"

"I've got hand fans that cause suffocation."

People eagerly gathered and chattered, preparing for a month from now. The fervor seemed unlikely to settle anytime soon.

Yeonwoo slowly walked around, observing the leading doomsday cultists. He noticed a bespectacled cultist going back and forth repeatedly.

"Take this. Information and weapons."

Each time he made a round, the documents in his hand changed, and he brought components of climate anomalies. There must have been a separate location.

Yeonwoo decided to make his move.

'Whether I steal anomalous objects or extract information. Let's do this.'

He walked the path the bespectacled cultist had been taking. After a short walk down a small trail on a grassy island, he came upon a site with a few tents and containers scattered haphazardly.

There were a few people on guard, but they were all sprawled on the ground, yawning.

"The sunlight's so warm..."

"So sleepy..."

They hadn't noticed Yeonwoo. They just licked their dry lips and rubbed their sleepy eyes.

Yeonwoo casually entered the tents one by one, starting with the nearest.

'This is for sleeping. This is for cooking. This is... for working?'

A spacious tent with a strange generator producing electricity, lighting, computers, bookshelves, and tables. The scent of coffee and paper lingered faintly.

Yeonwoo glanced outside the tent, then carefully moved his feet. He reached out and gently pulled out documents from the nearest bookshelf.

Seeing their titles, Yeonwoo's eyes widened as he looked at the other documents.

'National Destruction Scenario? Global Destruction Scenario? Human Extinction Scenario? These are all company confidential documents!'

The dangers the company worried about and tried to prevent. But for doomsday cultists, they were the best scenarios to fulfill their dreams.

Yeonwoo thought for a moment, then pushed the documents back into the bookshelf. Exactly as they had been. Paying attention to the order of the documents and even the details of how far they stuck out.

'For doomsday cultists, this would be the first information to extract. But rather than this, I need to find out what they're planning to do in the immediate war.'

Yeonwoo's eyes turned to the desk illuminated by a white desk lamp. As he approached step by step, the neatly arranged documents came into clearer view.

It was a map.

The company's forces were sparsely deployed on one side of the Black River. A document planning troop deployment.

An estimate of the forces of clubs and associations drawn on the opposite side of the river.

And a document.

[How to Pull the Afterlife Down to Earth]

Found it. Yeonwoo took out his phone from his chest and began taking photos of each page. The photos were captured silently.

The plan was to attack the emptied Earth to draw attention, while the real doomsday cultists would pull down the afterlife to blow up the Earth. Not just destruction, but a plan to spread the pollution of war like nuclear fallout.

A plan full of malice, desiring only the destruction of Earth and the death of humans.

'Are they really insane? Do they seriously want Earth to be destroyed? Why?'

Yeonwoo groaned slightly and his hand trembled a bit. It was a mindset he simply couldn't understand.

'Why are they trying to kill themselves?'

As he was photographing the documents one by one, he heard it.

Rustle, footsteps approaching. The sharp voice he had heard through the loudspeaker followed.

"Are you sleeping? At a time like this?"

"I'm not sleeping!"

"We're on guard!"

Yeonwoo turned around quickly to see a shadow cast over the tent. The shadow of the bespectacled cultist pointing at the guards lying down.

Yeonwoo hurriedly arranged the documents. Returning them to their original position.

"How many people are focused on this area right now? The company, other groups, even spies. Get your act together."

"We are on guard!"

"No, ah. I understand."

The hand that had been casting a shadow over the entrance came in. The hand immediately pulled back the canvas, and the bespectacled cultist walked in.

A dark silhouette backlit, only his glasses glinting. Yeonwoo pressed himself against the wall. The light from the glasses illuminated Yeonwoo. The light grew stronger.

It was because the cultist was getting closer. Step by step, the cultist approached until he was close enough for Yeonwoo to hear his breathing, then naturally brushed past.

'Did he not catch me?'

Just as Yeonwoo was thinking this question.

Drip-drip-

The cultist spoke while pouring water from the coffee pot.

"So, where did our guest come from?"

"..."

Yeonwoo remained silent, and the cultist with his back turned calmly poured water into a second cup. Then he brought forward a box containing coffee and tea.

"Coffee? Tea? Or water? Ah. Am I being too merciful by giving an uninvited guest choices?"

The cultist turned around. His glasses were pointed directly at Yeonwoo, and the cup was also extended towards him.

"Water. Drink it."

The perception distortion hadn't worked.

'Right. I thought this might happen.'

These weren't pushovers who could be fooled by just two pieces of equipment. Yeonwoo's mind cooled, and his thoughts raced.

He had prepared and planned for the possibility of being discovered.

'It's better to avoid a fight. This is enemy territory. I should pretend to be a deranged doomsday cultist instead.'

Yeonwoo stared intently at the other's glasses and opened his mouth with sincerity.

"Those glasses. I want them."

---

---

The cultist who acted as the brains unconsciously adjusted his glasses.

The glasses that analyzed what was revealed in reality had become one with him, greatly enhancing his senses and cognitive abilities.

That's why he recognized that Yeonwoo was sincere. And that's why he was confused.

'What's this? Who is this?'

He had expected the company or other groups to come. This felt different.

The light from his glasses intensified. It absorbed and analyzed the information from reality in detail. His sharp gaze scanned Yeonwoo from head to toe.

'Disguise. The voice is unnatural too. And anomalous objects.'

He wore a fluorescent vest and held a stone. A space-expanding bag hidden in his chest, time-buying bills and a lighter tucked in his pocket. There was also a faint smell of demon.

Traces of unknown anomalous objects were visible too. He couldn't identify what they were. He was even contaminated by something unknown.

'Company, club, demon worshipper, unknown?' Seaʀᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

All sorts of anomalous objects were mixed haphazardly. This was closer to a doomsday cultist. A doomsday cultist who looted and used others' anomalous objects.

He cautiously concluded.

'An individual doomsday cultist?'

Doomsday cultists don't always act in groups. Many refuse to attend gatherings. Naturally, such people lack any sense of camaraderie.

Sweat beaded on his forehead.

'A person who came to loot coveted anomalous objects using this gathering as an opportunity?'

Yeonwoo was staring at him without blinking, and that gaze pressed down on him like pressure.

The bespectacled cultist was smiling. Though his eyes weren't visible due to the light from his glasses, his mouth was curved in a grin.

"You've noticed, huh. Haha. If the glasses were everything, why would I be here alone and defenseless? If I were you, I'd give up on the glasses and run away right now."

Toggle New Ads

4/5 Enjoy the chappy!

Please give the book a rating and a review on NovelUpdates.

It helps the website and helps people find this novel!

If you'd like to make a one-time donation to support our translations or subscribe to read up to 15 chapters or more (depending on the novel) ahead, you can do so via Ko-fi.

Click here!