Chapter 686 – The First Wish, Yu Songee (3)
—
As I look at the city filled with gray concrete buildings, I often think this.
I’m glad I’m not human.
Just think about the residence I was in until a moment ago.
Those impersonal, boxy cubes called ‘apartments’ have absolutely zero aesthetics!
Seeing hundreds or thousands of entities living together in this cramped little space like bugs…
To be honest, it felt a bit gross.
And the most ridiculous fact?
Those ugly square boxes known as ‘apartments’ are the lifelong dream of 90% of humans in this country.
Many humans put their entire 80 years of short life into striving for this faceless, square dwelling!
In that regard, I could see that the owner of this body wasn’t doing too bad.
They managed to snag an ugly square box at a relatively young age!
It seems the job of a veterinarian is one of the better ones among humans.
“… A veterinarian.”
Reflecting on it, the problem was the profession of the transferred target.
Since the profession was veterinarian, there were many animals at home, and the kids seemed accustomed to animals as well.
I had accumulated enough data on the behavior of the subject but knew nothing about the behavioral patterns of dogs, cats, and birds.
Thanks to that, I couldn’t properly respond to the strange behaviors of the animals, and the child saw through my disguise.
It’s not uncommon for disguises to be exposed throughout Is’ history.
However, getting exposed by an ordinary human girl like now?
That’s not a big deal.
It’s just embarrassing.
As I thought about this, I saw the ‘daughter’ walking from a distance.
“Songie!”
“Dad! Huh? You’re off work already?”
The child’s situation was still a bit unclear.
Was the ‘partner’ so embarrassed by being discovered by an ordinary human that they wanted to painfully kill her?
“Today couldn’t be helped. Suddenly, the Management Bureau employees barged in, investigating your mom and me while making a racket at the hospital! I just finished interrogations from morning until now.”
“…”
How do you plan to respond to that? Are you going to lie and say you didn’t report it?
Just as I thought this and was about to burst into a hollow laugh,
the girl bowed her head and put her hand over her chest – suddenly, a gun popped out from within.
?
??
???
What the heck is this?
Did I just missee—
“Songie—”
— Bang!
In an instant, my balance was lost, and my body collapsed.
Crimson liquid gushed out from my chest!
Wait, so the girl just pulled out a gun and shot me?!
A flurry of data rushed through my mind.
Transfer target: Yoo Jeong-ho.
Transfer zone: Republic of Korea.
Due to the area’s characteristics, security is great, and firearms aren’t available to civilians.
The probability of combat is low—
That was all nonsense!
Calm down. I just need to get out of this body first.
It’s an emergency; I can’t worry about the disguise now!
I immediately slipped out of the host’s body.
Next transfer target, the goal is right in front of me – the ‘daughter’!
I was curious about why this was happening to her, and she was the nearest transfer target.
— Swoosh!
As the transfer force reached out toward the girl’s body,
Suddenly, her body crumbled like a sandcastle meeting a wave.
W-what is happening?
With all the unexpected events, it was hard to keep my calm.
Before I could even take a breath, the host died, and the next transfer target became nothing but dust!
I need to find the next transfer target fast.
Our essence transcends the physical, which often means we are considered ‘great’…
But that just means we can swap bodies to enjoy immortality, not that we can be without a body!
In a frantic effort to reach out for another target, I heard—
— Gooo…!
The sound of despair echoed throughout the world.
I’d rather it be some unknown noise!
I knew well the source of this sound, this phenomenon, this vibration – even the most foolish and weak of the Is race wouldn’t mistake it.
Because I knew it all too well; the probability of mistaking it for another phenomenon was non-existent.
Ah…
Grace, grace.
The king has begun the grace!
Thoughts surged forth in the shock that felt like my soul would stop.
When it was known that the king had gone missing on Earth, some of the noblemen had considered the possibility of “grace.”
Soon, they concluded the king would never attempt grace.
After observing humans upon arriving on Earth, those of my kind reached the same conclusion.
The probability of grace succeeding is zero.
The number of humans is endless, and the majority of them fall woefully short.
In short—
Again, again!
I fell into meaningless thoughts despite having been struck once!
Since I’ve been shot, the info I had about firearms being unavailable to civilians in South Korea is meaningless.
Since grace has begun, the idea that the king wouldn’t attempt grace is also pointless!
Grace. Failure. Cost. Descent, descent!
Fearful words began to flood my mind.
If I descend as a mere being on this wretched planet…
It was terrifying. So terrifying that…
I could barely endure the fear and pain.
T-there’s no time!
I need to find my body quickly, and when I do, what should I do?
Even if I find another body, what difference would it make when the cost of descent affects the entire planet?!
There’s nowhere to run.
I’m merely left to wither on this tiny planet like a worm drying out in sunlight.
…
Just before my consciousness faded, I heard a strange voice.
“Be grateful.”
?
*
– Kim Ahri
“Be grateful.”
As Songie’s chilling voice echoed, the endlessly wriggling mist melted away like ice exposed to sunlight.
It seemed the Is race had finally died after failing to find a transfer target.
“What do you mean, ‘be grateful’?”
Songie’s reply was somewhat eerie.
“Because I ended it quickly. I got some help from ‘Dad.’ So, let’s call it even.”
Then what about ‘Mom’?
“…”
Let’s drop those useless thoughts.
I wasn’t concerned if Songie roasted aliens or cooked them!
More than that, I was dying to know how she easily killed the Is race.
“Just like Kain said.”
Kain, who had battled the Is race in the post-apocalyptic world, once said.
“The entire race is ghosts? How do you kill them?”
“Just ensure there’s no body around to possess.”
The above discussion embodies one crucial fact.
While the Is race transcends flesh, it doesn’t mean they can exist without a body.
They, too, will die after a while if there’s no body to possess.
Later, Kain proved this fact by killing a count-level entity in a place without a transfer target.
“I understand the theory, but I can’t figure out how it was realized.”
Kain’s method was straightforward.
The battlefield was a wasteland, and he personally killed an advanced creature the Is race could possess.
That’s a method Songie or we couldn’t use.
This is a metropolis with ten million humans living in it, so there are plenty of potential transfer targets for the Is race.
If the Is race is mold, Seoul is just a petri dish full of sugar water.
And yet…
Just a moment ago, the entity crawled out of Songie’s Dad’s body and wriggled on the floor until it dried up like an insect.
What’s going on here?
As I tilted my head in confusion, Songie sat down wearily.
“Just give me a minute. Just five minutes.”
“You, you just used multiple perspectives on the Is race, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Even in a disembodied state, you could do that? Was that the kind of legacy?”
Songie fell silent for a moment and then murmured with a slightly confused expression.
“After realizing my first wish…”
“Then what?”
“I feel like I could do something.”
“What is it?”
“I suddenly thought, does it even matter whether it’s soul or body? No matter the form, to perceive and accept the outside world requires a sort of information exchange, right?”
“That’s true.”
“The power of the bracelet distorts that information exchange, so whether or not the subject’s entity exists might not be significant…”
“…”
“I just had that feeling, so I tried it, and it worked.”
“How specifically did you do it?”
Songie waved her hand wearily, but I firmly reached out my hand towards the sky.
“This is an important moment, so Kain’s probably watching.”
“…”
“You need to explain for Kain to understand. Otherwise, won’t he come up with a plan outside? He’s resting anyway.”
“I showed an illusion of shooting a gun to make him come out of Dad’s body.”
“And then?”
“I made it so they couldn’t perceive me or others. I prevented them from finding the possession target.”
An interesting methodology.
Let’s say the power of transfer is the sword wielded by the Is race.
Songie can’t simply remove or deflect that sword.
To eliminate the sword, you’d need an indomitable reason that suppresses the supernatural, while to block it, you’d need the flute of rest.
However, the sword isn’t wielded blindly in the air; it finds a target and strikes.
While multiple perspectives can’t disable the sword itself, they could obstruct the ‘target finding’ process.
“So, you prevented the Is race from finding their possession target?”
“… Something like that.”
“Yet in the end, it looked completely powerless, like it had lost the will to resist.”
At that moment, a smile crept onto Songie’s face.
“I played them the sound that the Is race fears the most.”
“What?”
“I saw it in memories of the past. It’s the sound that those arrogant beings who consider themselves ‘great’ fear most!”
So, you’re saying she trapped the Is race in despair by showing them the sound they feared most?
“What sound is that?”
“I’m not exactly sure—”
Just then.
— Gooo…!
A thunderous noise shook the heavens.
Simultaneously, I felt a strange wave, like skin being gently tapped.
“— Th-this sound!”
In that instant, I couldn’t comprehend the sudden change.
“What?”
“What?”
“What do you mean, ‘This sound’?”
“Once you hear this sound, the world ends…”
“…”
“Ahhh! Why is it genuinely happening?!”
Stunned, I stumbled and thought.
This is undoubtedly a bizarre phenomenon happening on Eunsol’s side!
“What in the world is Eunsol doing?!”
Right at that moment, Songie took off running toward the apartment with a determined expression!
“W-where are you going?”
“To meet Mom! I’ve gotta show my filial piety!”
“Is she actually insane?”
“Since there’s nothing else to do! It’s precisely at times like this that she should be sent to a good place!”
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