A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 81

Chapter 81

 

“…There’s no guarantee this will even work. While I’m trying to acquire the skill, everything could already be over…”

I said that.

The old man listened silently, then spoke.

“I know. That’s exactly why it has to be you.”

I frowned, unable to accept it, but he continued.

“You’re the only outsider who can understand and accept my story quickly. So shouldn’t you be the one to do it? The other brats would take ages just to comprehend it. Rereading a story you already know isn’t that difficult.”

“But it’s not certain–!”

He cut me off firmly and continued.

“You have to try anything. Anything at all. I’m going to die anyway. I won’t live long. So in the end, this is just a natural death. It’s a death I chose.”

“…How is it a natural death if you’re borrowing someone else’s hand?”

“If I just die like this, then I leave nothing behind.”

My mouth shut.

Because he was right.

Because I knew he was right, I couldn’t say anything and just stared at him.

His wrinkled, pale hand grabbed mine.

His bones were prominent, frail…

And yet, large.

The hand of someone who had endured a lifetime.

“If you want to save me, then succeed.”

Sophistry.

“I want to leave my legacy to you. You… stubbornly diligent, and devoted only to relentless destruction.”

“…Commander Johanna…”

Blood relation. Wouldn’t that be better?

My mind kept running, while already knowing the answer.

 

—

[Ah, what a performance! Such dramatic staging!]

—

 

Even knowing this was all just a play…

I couldn’t stop.

For some reason, it all felt like a ridiculous farce.

“Then I’ll bring Commander Johanna instead. I’ll–”

He didn’t let go of me.

“Johanna won’t do. She’s already carrying too many deaths. If she kills me with her own hands, she’ll collapse. She may not look it, but she’s soft. No… she lives that diligently because she’s soft.”

Those who weren’t soft had already left for their own gain.

Those who speak of justice are all soft.

Because they end up doing things they don’t want to… for justice, for the greater good.

“You’re the same, Muyeong. You already sense how this argument will end, don’t you?”

I didn’t look at his face.

Because I felt like I already knew what expression he had.

Guilt. Sadness. Regret.

A face made of all those things.

“Didn’t you say you’d do anything to survive? Even if the world turned against you, you’d still move toward your goal? Was that all a lie?!”

I said I’d do anything to survive.

But I never thought that meant killing someone…

 

—

[Didn’t you?]

[What’s the difference between Leon Wolf and the ones you killed in that flower field?]

[Because you knew one, and not the others?]

—

 

…They attacked first…

 

—

[Oh? Oh! Come now. You know that’s not the point.]

[We’re talking about the weight of life.]

[Is Leon Wolf’s life worth more? Because he’s a living hero, and they were vermin?]

—

 

My head throbbed as it filled to bursting.

Every word felt chosen specifically to tear me apart.

No, not felt like.

They ‘were’.

 

—

[Let’s think differently.]

[Is the life of an ant and a human so different in weight?]

[Why?]

[Then is the heaviest creature on Earth more valuable than a human?]

—

 

I clenched my fist.

 

—

[As I always say–]

[Don’t pretend to be righteous.]

[You’re already holding the dagger.]

—

 

Leon Wolf shouted again.

“Get a hold of yourself!”

My mind…

That damned mind…

The mocking voice vanished.

Only I, my master, and this worn room remained.

Everything…

Felt unreal.

Like a joke.

“Raise your blade. That’s an order.”

There was a knife in my hand.

“Move. Don’t lose yourself.”

The voice pressed on me again and again.

Everything felt distant.

Only screams felt close.

The screams filling my ears…

The pounding heartbeat…

I couldn’t tell whose it was.

Mine?

My master’s?

Or those dying far away?

“Move!”

It was a trigger.

Before it was too late…

Move.

That one word contained everything.

 

***

 

Someone screamed.

I looked out the window, then down again.

It felt like the scream had come from nearby.

But no.

My master hadn’t screamed.

That was the narrator laughing.

Laughing at me.

Amid that sound…

In the dark room…

I stared blankly at the thick pool spreading out.

‘Ah.’

What… am I doing here?

I stood before a grave that had solidified decades into a single moment…

And thought that.

What did I do?

I don’t even know what I’m doing.

The warm, sticky substance on my hands clouded my mind.

The smell brushing my nose made me dizzy.

Distant, yet close.

Reality drifted away, then came back again.

The window walked to the door, then receded again.

People’s screams sounded like laughter.

No…

Maybe I couldn’t hear anything at all.

My ears just rang.

Something had splattered on my face…

I wiped it with the back of my hand.

I already knew my hand was soaked with something dripping down.

But I wiped it anyway.

The boundary between clean and dirty collapsed.

I couldn’t tell which was which anymore.

‘Maybe… me.’

Maybe I was the dirty one…

And everything else was clean.

The dagger’s handle felt like it was melting in my grip.

It smelled like plastic melting under a blazing sun.

That faint burning plastic smell.

Or maybe…

Like ash.

Like the smell of burned trash in the countryside.

I didn’t choose which it was.

Maybe it was both.

It felt like a heart was beating in my hand.

This space was terrifyingly silent…

And deafeningly loud.

So…

“It’s noisy. It’s too quiet, so it’s noisy.”

Stop being so quiet.

It’s loud.

Everything collapsed…

And in my hand, small stones rattled.

Even that tiny sound was unbearable.

Everything was red.

And black.

No… white.

I couldn’t tell what I was seeing.

Or what moment this was.

In my shifting vision…

Something appeared.

 

—

[One Who Walks the Defined Path]

—

 

A spear.

 

—

[Definition of Justice (1)]

You feel guilt. Therefore, you connect with the world.

You resonate with the guilt of others.

The greater your guilt becomes, the sharper your movements.

The more guilt you understand in others, the more your blade moves according to your will.

 

※ Current burden of guilt: 4

※ Strength increased by 5%

?? Strength conversion (human-like → human)

—

 

A clicking sound.

The number increased.

 

—

※ Current burden of guilt: 4

→

※ Current burden of guilt: 5

—

 

Everything is reduced to numbers.

That was absurd.

So absurd…

It snapped my back to my senses.

Time remaining: 3 hours 30 minutes.

The stones filling my hand…

I swallowed them.

No…

Not swallowed.

Absorbed.

Once, Sa Jaeheon had said…

Those slippery stones melt on your tongue without taste or smell…

But the sensation is so foreign it feels disgusting.

Yeah.

I get it now.

Nothing passed down my throat…

But it felt like I swallowed something horribly wrong.

Something I shouldn’t have swallowed.

‘Now I understand why that potion helps read it.’

At least the potion the goat gave wasn’t this repulsive.

It felt like I would vomit everything out…

Even my organs.

Maybe…

This was my final resistance against this situation.

 

—

[Absorbing “Story: The Great Wolf of the Barren Snow Mountain”…]

—

 

On top of my master’s corpse…

Who had fallen without resistance…

I devoured his story.

Because in this destruction,

A “story” was existence itself.

I killed my master…

And consumed his existence.

It tasted…

Fucking horrible.

 

—

[Good luck. We hope you are not consumed by the “Story.”]

—