Chapter 128

Victim I I

“Who is this constellation anyway? It makes me so angry!”

Dang Seo-rin slammed her fist on the table.

We were in a sundae gukbap (blood sausage soup) restaurant in Busan. It was unlike Dang Seo-rin, who usually focused solely on eating, to rant about the ‘Collector of All Anomalies’ throughout the meal.

This was proof of how spectacularly successful our <Zero Requiem> project had been.

“Hmm. Well, it seems that constellation thinks of themselves as an administrator of an online game.”

“Ha. Running a game with such a nerdy attitude would make it fail in today’s world!”

“Well, reality is failing.”

“Ah... Seriously, it makes me so mad. Does he think the Korean Peninsula is his playground? I’ll make sure he regrets it someday.”

Except for the occasional times when she put people in concrete shoes and made them walk on the sea, Dang Seo-rin was a person of character.

Even someone like her was this angry. Imagine how other awakeners felt.

I put aside my guilt towards Dang Seo-rin and quickly focused on manipulating the media.

Author: ‘Collector of All Anomalies’

Greetings, human awakeners active in Korea.

I’m surprised! I didn't expect you to defeat the Ten Legs, the apostle I ambitiously prepared, so easily. Should I say it's to be expected from the region that prides itself on being a nation of gamers? (Wink)

For such impressive people, I plan to release anomalies with even higher difficulty levels in the future.

Do you like... ‘hide and seek’?

I do. (Smile)

The next anomaly I’ll present to you is the World Tree Udumbara. If you can’t find it within the limited time, the entire Korean Peninsula, no, the entire world, will be engulfed by a zombie virus.

Shortly after the Ten Legs were exterminated, another new post went up on SG Net, causing an uproar.

-Anonymous: Seriously, why does this bastard keep showing up on the Korean Peninsula?

-[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: Oh! I cannot contain my lament at the villainy of this demonic outsider!

-[Baekwha] HighSchoolSenior: Hoeii (>_<);; I want to tie him up and slowly tear him apart with a nail clipper (>_<);;

-Anonymous: Am I the only one going crazy at that ‘wink’ nonsense??

-Cooking Queen: Interesting.

Only five people in the world knew that the ‘Collector of All Anomalies’ was a fabricated entity: myself, the Saintess, Noh Do-hwa, Yu Ji-won, and Sim Ah-ryeon.

Noh Do-hwa pouted.

“Sometimes I feel self-loathing, wondering if we really need to go this far... But, since the ‘Monster Wave’ deceived us first, we must respond to deception with deception...”

In any case, our media manipulation and <Zero Requiem> operation continued to progress smoothly.

From the beginning, I, the Undertaker, had memorized all the anomalies that would appear on the Korean Peninsula.

Their identities, gimmicks, and even the timing of their appearances.

Using this regressor’s knowledge cunningly, creating a new constellation as the ‘mastermind playing with the Korean Peninsula’ was a piece of cake.

If pre-apocalypse journalists saw this, they would have been moved, thinking, ‘Indeed, the essence of Korean media continues to be passed down to future generations even after the collapse of civilization!’

Ultimately, all the negative feelings of the people were directed towards the ‘Collector of All Anomalies.’ In other words, towards Sim Ah-ryeon.

Author: ‘Collector of All Anomalies’

Greetings, human awakeners active in Korea. (Smile)

Now, the awakeners would have a fit just seeing the expression (Smile).

-Anonymous: Again? He’s back?

-LiteraryGirl: What are the other constellations doing instead of catching that mastermind bastard?

An absolute evil.

Treating this apocalyptic struggle for survival as mere amusement. The tone of the mastermind, devoid of any dignity or intelligence.

...If the ‘Collector of All Anomalies’ had been a somewhat serious character, a cult might have formed worshiping this constellation.

Even if he caused the death of humanity, the power to freely unleash terrifying anomalies would have seemed enormous to mere mortals.

However, the ‘Collector of All Anomalies’ was too frivolous to be worshiped as an evil god.

In short, he lacked style.

Whether someone loved or hated humanity, the ‘Collector of All Anomalies’ exuded such a strong nerdy vibe that no one could respect him as a Constellation. Only hatred, resentment, and contempt poured out.

-Anonymous: Did you see the meteor shower scattering starlight corpses as it died?

└Anonymous: Yep, saw it. It was brutal.

└[NRMC] Officer: It was thanks to the Samcheon Guild Leader that we stopped it. If we hadn’t, the Gyeongsangnam-do area would have been completely devastated.

└Anonymous: Why do we keep getting these kinds of anomalies? I just want to beat up that collector bastard.

And so.

Fifteen years passed.

[Mr. Undertaker.]

[A monster wave has been detected in North Korea. It's currently assumed to be moving south from the Gando region towards the Korean Peninsula’s interior.]

I nodded.

It had been a long time of enduring.

Who owns SG Net, the only information-sharing platform in this apocalypse? Me.

Resurrection.

But it wasn’t just human lives that were resurrected. The green grass and colorful flowers, dirtied by the black filth, bloomed anew.

“Ah... Ah...”

Green regeneration.

The believers looked down at their hands. Hands that, just seconds ago, had exposed bones.

Someone unknowingly murmured.

“It’s a miracle...”

Indeed.

It was a miracle.

Even in this apocalypse filled with anomalies and awakeners, the sight of life being reborn with every step Sim Ah-ryeon took was profoundly moving.

The ‘Monster Wave’ tried to attack, but I quietly dealt with those nasty anomalies.

I, the Undertaker, was a person who valued manners. It was a courtesy for villains to stay quiet during magical girl transformation scenes.

“Saintess, she’s the Saintess...”

“Jesus has called Santa Maria!”

“Hallelujah! God wills it!”

The battle situation rapidly changed.

The Monster Wave was bewildered. It learned the lesson of empathy the hard way. No matter how much it killed and cut, the number of human heads seemed endless.

Humans were inherently a warrior race. As long as their heads weren’t chopped off, they could ‘start anew stronger,’ following the rules of the game.

For four straight nights.

In the battle at the Yalu River defense line, the 2,000 elite soldiers of the Eastern Holy State achieved an overwhelming victory against 200,000 monsters from the Monster Wave. It was a historic triumph.

“Uwoooo!”

“We won! We really won!”

“The Great Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ has not abandoned us humans! Long live Jesus! Long live the Saintess!”

“......”

Sim Ah-ryeon smiled.

It wasn’t that Ah-ryeon had learned to mimic Go Yuri. I had repeatedly told her, ‘You look fine as long as you keep your mouth shut, so please never open your mouth.’

As long as she wasn’t involved with online communities or the Logout Game, Ah-ryeon was generally a well-behaved child.

Her mysterious smile drew enthusiastic cheers from the Resurrection Church believers.

Once again, the genre of this world was, in fact, fantasy.

And according to the rules of the fantasy genre, the Holy Empire must have a Saintess.

Especially since there was already a Saintess in the south of Seoul, there must be another Saintess in Pyongyang in the north. That was the physical law of the Korean Peninsula.

Who could have foreseen it?

The Eastern Holy State’s Saintess.

Her name was Sim Ah-ryeon.

There is an epilogue.

Thanks to the success of <Zero Requiem>, another ocean-class anomaly, the Monster Wave, was safely dealt with.

However, this ‘dealing with’ couldn’t be called an ‘extermination.’ Beyond the Yalu River, monster waves continued to occur periodically.

Each time, Sim Ah-ryeon had to ride on my back to the Yalu River front to demonstrate her Saintess’s dignity.

“G-Guild leader. Did I do well? I did well, right? Praise me...”

“Yes. You were perfect. You did a great job. As expected of the world’s greatest healer. Ah-ryeon, you are a gem.”

“Hehe...”

Even if it was only a temporary solution, Sim Ah-ryeon consistently protected the Korean Peninsula as the ‘indestructible barrier of life’ in the north.

In the fifteenth year, in the sixteenth year, in the seventeenth year, in the eighteenth year, in the nineteenth year, in the twentieth year, in the twenty-first year, and in the twenty-second year.

Although, by the twenty-second year, her power had grown so strong that a ‘corruption phenomenon’ occurred... In reality, Sim Ah-ryeon had almost single-handedly defended the front for those eight years.

――As I dealt with the ‘Monster Wave’ this time, I was deeply troubled.

The Monster Wave, one of the mid-boss anomalies that had destroyed our world countless times, had caused many tragedies.

At first, I intended to write about those solemn deaths as I did with the ‘Ten Legs’ and ‘Meteor Shower.’

But when I thought of Sim Ah-ryeon, I changed my mind.

Despite receiving all kinds of hate and contempt from the awakeners, playing the Saintess against her will, and being summoned to the battlefield at least once a month, Sim Ah-ryeon never showed signs of struggle.

As her guild leader, I should sing of joy rather than tragedy.

Majesty, sorrow. At least while Sim Ah-ryeon was smiling, I didn’t want to paint such landscapes.

Because.

“Hehe... When we get back to the hideout, make me a café mocha, please... With lots of chocolate syrup...”

Because I had come to love her smile as much as she loved my coffee.

Footnotes:

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