STD 203

“It is true.”

Hoiga spoke in a tearful voice.

“Because we mobilized even the worst weapons to stop the monsters, most of humanity ended up disappearing instead. The Integrated Research Institute where I was was the only place left, but since it was under attack by monsters before I left… that place must have been shut down as well.”

“But there must be some people left?”

In response to Doctor Kim’s question, Hoiga shook his head.

“Even if there are some left, it would only be a handful. Humanity, humans… will go extinct.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

I stepped forward and cursed at Hoiga.

“Who the fuck do you think you are to treat the remaining people like corpses?”

Maybe Hoiga had already heard about who I was from Doctor Kim, because he just looked at me with trembling eyes and tried to make excuses.

“But there are no longer any people left to stop the monsters there. There are no shelters left either…”

“What do you mean there aren’t?! I am from one of those shelters!”

I shouted without realizing it, then gritted my teeth.

“There are as many as 793 of them. That many are still hiding in places where they can communicate.”

“But the monsters…”

“Those monster will starve to death on their own if there is no food. They just need to hide and hold out until then.”

It sounded like a stretch, but I was sincere, and I wanted the others to believe it too. I slowly turned to look at Doctor Kim. Perhaps shocked by the state of Earth, she was now staring into the void.

She felt as if she would shatter and scatter across the floor if touched, so I couldn’t dare call her name.

The reason she had endured on Tubain for so long was solely for one reason: to save the people of Earth. It was because of this mission.

However, the number of people remaining was so pathetic that it was ridiculed as a sign of extinction. Therefore, I did not want the long-held hope that had kept her alive to be revealed in this way.

But what kind of comfort could I possibly offer her?

Just then, she staggered and leaned on the desk. Startled, I grabbed her arm, and heard her whisper.

“You know… sometimes.”

“Don’t say anything, just sit down for now…”

“I wondered if you… if you might be my nephew.”

I was about to lead her to a chair but stopped in place. Doctor Kim seemed to be in a state where she could not speak, as her voice was faint, yet I could hear it clearly.

“If my hometown were still intact and countless people were still alive, he could have come. But the idea that my nephew is among the 793 survivors and would come here… it just doesn’t make sense.”

“…….”

“But Team Leader Kim.”

Suddenly, she grabbed my arm tightly and looked up at me.

“Who’s that strict guardian you mentioned?”

“……My maternal grandmother.”

After a short and suffocating silence, she asked again.

“What is your name?”

This time, it was difficult to answer immediately. It took me a while to open my mouth, as my name felt unfamiliar, like someone else’s.

“Kim Kanghee.”

Everything seemed to come to a standstill once again, as if time had stopped, but the eyes directed at me were different. The emotion contained within them was as vast as the ocean.

However, there was no sobbing or loud crying. She simply embraced me and mumbled the same words over and over in a trembling voice.

“How… how could this be….”

I held her back, unable to give her any answer. Because it was a miracle too long to explain.

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D-384

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When I returned to the underground shelter after completing my mission above ground, I was greeted by those huddled against the wall. The pitch-black basement, with its unreliable electricity supply, made people look like a single black mass.

In this place where it was impossible to distinguish between day and night, these people had nothing to do but breathe.

“Team Leader Kim, please take your rations.”

Someone handed me food as I watched the people in the shelter. Fortunately, the shelter was not short of supplies.

It was a tragedy, however, that the reason was that so many people were dying so quickly. But food alone was not enough to sustain life.

Since they had to remain underground without being discovered by the monsters, the shelter supplied medicine to those who had not yet adapted to the monsters. After all, fear attracted monsters.

However, that emergency treatment rendered the people listless. To think they had lost their vitality just to survive the monsters.

Nevertheless, the shelter was striving to save even one more person. After all, my going up to the surface to fight the monsters was also for their sake.

“Oh, by the way, please visit the control room before you eat.”

The person who delivered the food to me informed me.

“They said there’s news you’ve been waiting a long time for.”

The control room, the place where this shelter, one of the few remaining in the world, was managed. And inside the door were people familiar to me. I greeted them and glanced at a stranger sitting on the sofa.

It was a middle-aged man in tattered clothes, shivering under a blanket. Before I could even confirm who he was, I asked.

“Are you from the Integrated Research Institute?”

“Team Leader Kim, wait. He’s taken sedatives, so he can’t talk right now.”

Enya, the leader of the shelter, stopped me. I paused because her voice was low and weak. Only then did I realize that the atmosphere among the others in the room was grim. There was only one reason that could make them like this.

“Is there still a research institute left? Have you received news from Tubain? Are you saying that not a single informant survived? Is the Eye of Hell opening again?”

“Team Leader Kim.”

Enya interrupted the barrage of questions again. Then she pointed to a chair.

“It’s a long story.”

As I reluctantly sat down, I could not take my eyes off the middle-aged man. The Integrated Research Institute was the last remaining hope of this world.

And if only the countless informants who had crossed over there could inform the other world of our situation and close the Eye of Hell.

“Start with the conclusion. Are there any informants who survived on Tubain?”

“Yes.”

I held my breath. Indeed, so many had crossed over there. Though they were like moths flying into a flame, I had hoped that at least one of them would survive and land safely on that light.

“They say a robot at the research institute collected a Book of Prophecy not long ago.”

A Book of Prophecy?!

I gripped the armrest of the chair tightly to keep from getting worked up. As part of the effort to close the Eye of Hell, Earth had sacrificed countless researchers to send out their brain signals.

However, over the course of a few years, the Eye of Hell opened multiple times without any results. Just as everyone was in despair, unable to find an exit, it appeared.

It was a small object, not a monster.

It was so severely damaged that its identity was difficult to discern at first glance, but it soon became known that it was a scroll with something written on it. We have no idea how it managed to pass through the Eye of Hell.

However, thanks to this document, we were able to confirm the existence of Tubain. We also learned that there was a world beyond that that resembled Earth, and the reason why the people there opened the Eye of Hell to send out monsters.

The most surprising thing was that the scroll contained information about the future. We did not know how such a time gap came about. However, through the prophecy on the scroll, we were able to know when the next Eye of Hell would open.

We also obtained coordinates suitable for a brain transplant. The research institute viewed this as a last chance and poured all its technology into it.

However, years had passed since then, and to this day, the Eye of Hell had not closed. Most of the research institutes tasked with finding and monitoring the Books of Prophecy have been destroyed.

Then, by chance, we heard news that one integrated research institute still remained. Since then, I had been struggling to find that research institute.

“Enya.”

Unable to contain my impatience, I called out to her, and a calm voice answered.

“According to the Book of Prophecy, in one year, the Eye of Hell will open.”

I was speechless. Humanity was already on the brink of extinction, and we had no strength left to resist. Despair choked me, yet, it continued to flow from Enya’s lips.

“And they say it will never close.”

Monsters swarm out just from it opening for a brief moment; it would never close? I gripped the armrest of my chair so tightly it felt like it would break.

“…What do you mean it won’t close?”

“According to the Book of Prophecy, that is the case. Someone deliberately manipulated the Eye of Hell to keep it open indefinitely to destroy our world.”

“Fuck, why are those Tubain bastards in such a frenzy to devour us?!”

“It wasn’t done by a person of Tubain.”

What do you mean?

Enya told me something shocking, but I couldn’t understand it. It was the story of the traitor.

“Unfortunately, the Book of Prophecy was damaged, so the traitor’s identity is unknown. Besides, it was the last Book of Prophecy.”

“The last one?”

“It was written that the author would die soon after that. Perhaps because it was the last one, she revealed her identity. She says that until now, she had carefully hidden her identity to avoid being caught leaking information through the Eye of Hell.”

“Who is it?”