A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 103

Chapter 103

 

There were plenty of items that granted wishes. From the perspective of the “Third Parties,” granting a wish through an item was the cheapest form of exchange.

They didn’t even have to show themselves, just send an agent and leave it tucked away somewhere. And they could consume far more in return, proportional to the size of the wish.

‘Of course, granting wishes on this kind of field-wide scale…’

…meant that the “Third Party” connected on the other side possessed that level of power. Operating a field like this wasn’t easy. Especially while fulfilling something as vaguely defined as “turning things back.”

The more specific a wish was, the more efficient it became.

Rather than “I want to be rich,” something like “I want 50 billion after tax, clean money, fully processed legally, sitting in my bank account” would be better.

But “turning things back” was far too vague.

What exactly do you want to turn back?

And what kind of “peace” are we talking about?

Even being unable to take a single step outside the mountain, yet remaining peaceful as long as you stayed within it… that still counted as fulfilling the wish for “peace.”

In other words, even if they were essentially imprisoned in the mountain and starved to death there, it would still count as granting their “peace.”

And yet, the owner’s wish was far too ambiguous, with too much room for interpretation.

Even so… everything was being granted exactly as she wanted.

‘A “Third Party” with humanity?’

Ridiculous.

That doesn’t exist.

That’s why I thought about it.

It felt like I almost understood, yet couldn’t quite recall. I frowned, thinking for a moment.

Then suddenly, it came to me.

Something very similar…

Sa Jaeheon had once received it too.

It was an item shaped like a horse’s head attached to a bird’s body. It had flown in one day and offered to grant Sa Jaeheon a wish.

And Sa Jaeheon destroyed it immediately.

The reason was simple.

“Because I don’t like its voice.”

He said he didn’t like its voice.

After that, I remembered hearing more about those kinds of items from someone else.

“That thing? It’s for collecting stories. Grant a wish, let people be satisfied and happy… that’s just the setup. Then they create a plot where everything gets destroyed in the cruelest way possible, and they collect that story.”

“Taking sacrifices is just to make people believe. ‘Since I’m paying proper sacrifices, this peace will continue as long as I keep paying.’ Even the item growing bigger over time does the same thing… it makes you feel like you’ve paid a fair price for it.”

“But when it all breaks… that despair, that sense of betrayal… that’s the best kind of material, right? Well, sometimes some crazy bastards wish, ‘Please just kill everyone here.’ That can be entertaining too, sometimes.”

“Most people just wish to be happy, though. Unfortunately. Reality’s just that shitty.”

Killing people who were filled with happiness… and savoring all that despair, their struggle, their desperate attempts to regain that happiness.

Yeah.

That kind of plot.

‘…No idea how much time has passed.’

From what I could tell, the collapse wasn’t far off.

It didn’t feel like they’d been living like this for just a month or two.

‘Agents probably started moving after Chapter 10 of the Apocalypse.’

We didn’t see them because we went to Hermadion… but if we hadn’t, we definitely would have encountered one.

I couldn’t determine the exact timing.

But it had definitely been more than a month or two.

Summer was already approaching on Earth.

Which meant… the day this all collapsed wasn’t far off.

 

— 

[Hmm, going to play the righteous hero again?]

— 

 

A mocking message sneered in front of me.

 

— 

[Why? Maybe those people want to die like this.]

[As you said yourself, unwanted salvation can be violence. What you’re trying to do now is no different from violence.]

— 

 

The real problem lay elsewhere.

The reason this item was described as the most cruel.

“First, it restores what those people wanted to protect… back to how it ‘originally’ was. If it revived someone who died, then it replays the moment of their death like a tape… and kills them again right in front of you.”

“Can you save them? It’s just a prerecorded video being played. It traps you in helplessness. And at the same time, it brings them back again as if none of it was real… and kills them again. Right in front of you. It repeats that endlessly. After living for thousands of years, the ways to die get… creative. That’s the problem.”

“How would it feel to watch your family die in dozens, hundreds, thousands of different ways? To lose someone you wanted to save so badly, over and over again?”

“Most people try to end their own lives. But even that’s not allowed. In the end, within hallucinations, their limbs are torn apart piece by piece, slowly sliced apart until their mind completely collapses… until even their soul is ground to dust.”

“Because a perfect death is their perfect delicacy.”

 

— 

[But that too is something they chose. That’s practically a savior complex. Do you think you have to correct them?]

— 

 

It was too excessive.

Most of these people probably weren’t imagining anything as grotesque as that example when they thought about “death.”

People usually don’t imagine something that detailed and cruel.

‘If I want to end all of this…’

In the end, I had to destroy the item itself.

Sa Jaeheon had simply smashed it.

Back then, it had only been the size of a palm, so it wasn’t difficult.

But now, that snake was enormous.

The only thing that might be breakable… was that orb-like object.

 

— 

[You must never expect things to proceed ‘logically’ at all times!]

— 

 

That was true too.

Even if I didn’t want to admit it.

Expecting logic here was difficult.

In this place, “common sense” often didn’t apply.

Still… wouldn’t it be better to try?

‘…Of course, if they allow it.’

If they willingly walked toward their own destruction, I had no right to stop them.

It wasn’t my place.

But still… just…

“…What are you going to do?”

Lee Hoin asked quietly, sitting on the floor.

After receiving treatment for my neck, we returned to the room.

Both of us had been lost in thought for a while.

“…If this is what they chose.”

Then we should just leave it alone.

Everything is a series of choices.

If that’s what they want, there’s no need for me to interfere.

I can’t live by interfering in everything

Who am I, anyway?

It’s not like I’m someone special.

“Let’s just pack our things. After all this, there’s no reason to stay here. And that item is suspicious too.”

As I said that, I stood up.

If they didn’t want interference, then that was that.

Lee Hoin eventually nodded and stood as well.

We packed lightly and opened the door… and right in front of it stood a large man.

…Kim Sungho.

Why does this guy always show up like this?

“…Are you leaving?”

At that question, we nodded.

“After everything that happened, it feels like we’d just be a nuisance if we stayed longer.”

Kim Sungho looked at us for a moment, then stepped into the room.

“Could you spare a moment to talk?”

Talk? He barely ever spoke before… why now?

Though wary, we nodded.

He closed the door completely and said:

“Please get rid of it.”

“…What?”

“That… the snake.”

He paused for a moment, then spoke slowly.

“Things are getting strange. The ingredients are spoiling faster, more livestock in the farm are dying… and monsters have started appearing in the mountain.”

That was the first I’d heard of it.

I grabbed him and asked,

“Since when?”

“About… three days ago.”

Three days ago.

If that’s the case…

‘Something is definitely going wrong.’

Even so, I didn’t know what to do in this situation.

I was the one who got strangled just for asking about this place.

If we broke the item and everything turned out to be an illusion… There was no telling what they’d do.

I frowned, thinking for a moment.

Then I made a decision.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is something we should be involved in anymore. Instead of coming to us, it’d be faster for you to persuade the owner and the others. Or wouldn’t it be better for you to handle it yourself?”

We’re outsiders.

But Kim Sungho… the owner’s son, who built all of this… should be capable of it.

That’s what I thought as I said it.

Kim Sungho looked down at me and said,

“I can’t.”