143 - Alien
TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: posted in discord
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The observatory transformed into an anomalous space.
The observation room was filled with mist, starlight pouring down, and moonlight shining brightly.
Yeonwoo quietly closed his eyes. His metaphysical senses stretched out like tentacles, clearly perceiving the observation room.
'I can feel it.'
The telescope had become an anomalous entity. No longer a telescope for observing stars, but one for seeing the terrors of the universe that shouldn't be seen.
The same had happened to the researcher. The 0.4 percent of contaminated genes ran wild, and his ordinary human body was invaded by the mist, twisting into an anomalous entity."——-"
His spine and neck curved backward in an arc, and his protruding eyes extended towards the sky like telescopes. Instead of human sounds, his mouth emitted something like star noises, flowing out like electromagnetic waves.
A human had become an anomalous entity.
'This sensation.'
On the other hand, Yeonwoo, already contaminated by anomalous entities, sank deeper into the sensation.
Listening to the calm beating of his heart, he interpreted the flood of information.
A world of disorder and non-causality due to anomalies. A future holding infinite possibilities, bordering on chaos.
The dice manipulated probability as possibility, and the contaminated Yeonwoo could sense probabilistic possibilities and lead to results. At this moment, he detected futures with high probabilities, futures likely to be realized.
Futures thick with the mist of contamination.
"...Danger Level 6?"
All futures converged towards anomalous contamination. Infinite possibilities narrowed. To a future where everything changes into anomalies.
He saw futures where the observation room connected to outer space, or space monsters appeared, or the space gradually expanded.
Like a world moving for the Association President, reality and the future tilted towards contamination.
But even the future after that rushed towards one conclusion.
'No. This isn't Danger Level 6. This isn't absolute.'
Yeonwoo slightly opened his eyes. For a moment, the shape of dice seemed to reflect in his pupils, but then the dice shape crumbled, turning into threads of probability clustered like a swarm of parasites, writhing.
Yeonwoo spoke in a strange tone.
"The company was already prepared, huh."
The future full of mist and anomalous contamination ultimately ended with purification by the company's hands.
Satellite weapons stabbed down, bombers bloomed flames on the ground, missiles flew, and in extreme cases, nuclear bombs fell.
Was the violence of pure science and physical force the weakness of the mist?
There was no future where the mist spread to Earth. As if humanity's survival was destined.
At that moment, Yeonwoo thoughtlessly thought.
'Boring.'
A predetermined future. Fixed possibilities. It's really boring. A world full of more chaos and unexpected events would be more fun.
Yeonwoo slowly raised his hand. The threads of probability writhed. He would open wide the closed future.
'Wouldn't it be more fun if a perfectly fine Earth could face doom tomorrow, if walking forward could lead to random teleportation, if time flowed backwards or repeated itself?'
That was the moment.
The hand about to unleash possibilities stopped. His voice trembled.
"...Fun? Fun?"
His heart, which had been beating steadily, began to race madly. The vitality from the rain surged endlessly, swirling through his entire body. His survival instinct screamed as if his head would split, and his humanity strengthened in response.
Conflicting contaminations clashed. In that miraculous balance, Yeonwoo came to his senses.
'Contamination!'
It was the contamination of the dice. Even his sense of self had been pulled closer to the dice. The nature that favored randomness and possibility.
He felt a chill. The winter cold suddenly cut to the bone, and only then did Yeonwoo realize the problem.
'I can't handle this power.'
Contamination wasn't the only issue.
The near-infinite possibilities of the future pouring in. Yeonwoo had merely been swept up in the wave of information, seeing what was shown.
Only now, having barely regained his senses, did he find his own future.
Himself, completely eroded by the dice, losing self-awareness and becoming an anomalous entity spreading chaos. Himself, dying from the company's bombardment while resisting contamination.
Or a future where he became more contaminated by the mist, with even the rain and dice mutating.
There was no future where he lived normally.
"No!"
Yeonwoo screamed. He couldn't handle such a future. His mind, wandering through futures, snapped back to reality.
'What should I do? Think, think, think quickly.'
No, thinking wasn't necessary. With such strong power, there was no need to use his head. The power in his hands now was equal to or stronger than the mist, and in fact, he didn't need to use the power.
'No, I don't need to eliminate the mist. The company should do that. I just need to reverse the contamination.'
Yeonwoo raised both hands. At this moment, the power of Danger Level 6 was fully unleashed.
He spread one hand wide. As possibilities were released, they collided with the future narrowed by the mist. The mist seemed to writhe and retreat. The speed at which the observation room was changing into an anomalous entity slowed.
The future where Yeonwoo would become an anomalous entity also shrank.
In that state, Yeonwoo grasped two other possibilities. One was suppressing the runaway contamination. The other was movement. He disappeared from the observation room.
---
---
"Wake up!"
Yeonwoo moved to Mark Jung's hotel room. Mark Jung startled awake, sitting up in bed.
"Wh-what's going on?"
Even in his sleep-addled state, Mark Jung responded sharply.
Yeonwoo explained briefly. They had observed the mist of Pluto and summoned it to Earth. The observatory was contaminated.
Mark Jung's expression showed his sleep had completely fled as he gaped.
"The mist of Pluto... You mean that Danger Level 5 thing? Shouldn't there have been filters to prevent its observation? Ah, the dice. But still."
Muttering to himself, Mark Jung unconsciously tapped on his phone to search for information, then made a tired expression.
"That department was supposed to seal the alien and extraterrestrial material. The security level was mismatched. There was no warning not to observe it."
He sighed heavily.
"Request screening, ah."
They hadn't touched anything to analyze Yeonwoo's personality. They thought even if a problem arose, Yeonwoo would handle it well.
The company, being so large, often made small mistakes, and this accident resulted from various factors overlapping.
Yeonwoo waved his hand at that nonchalant voice.
"Anyway, we need to respond quickly."
"I'm doing it now."
Yeonwoo glanced over to see Mark Jung writing a request for weapon use against the Pluto mist.
"It's weak to pure physical force. Just firing a few missiles should end it. Or dropping a satellite weapon. Done. They say they'll drop a satellite weapon."
The request sent directly to a director at headquarters was approved. Mark Jung put down his phone, rubbing his bloodshot eyes.
They would fire at the observatory's coordinates without separate observation.
He looked out the window, and Yeonwoo also gazed at the bright night sky of the city.
Faint starlight was falling across the night sky. Moving in a straight line towards the observatory where the mist was.
Yeonwoo suddenly waved his hand. He moved the observatory staff who hadn't been touched by the mist far away.
As for those who had become irreversible anomalous entities...
'Let's move them to isolation rooms. They'll suffer through experiments, but that's better than dying.'
He moved them separately to isolation rooms he had seen before. To rooms housing the Tree Person and the Grammar Nazi Robot.
Since the mist had moved through observation, there shouldn't be any problems.
After watching the night sky for a while, Mark Jung seemed to realize something and looked at Yeonwoo.
"Aren't you contaminated by the mist too, Yeonwoo?"
"I'm suppressing it for now."
"You must be at the Association President's level right now, right? Still, you need to reverse that quickly. If left alone, you'll completely change into an anomalous entity, and the dice will mutate too."
Yeonwoo kept his mouth shut.
That was true. But there was still time, and Yeonwoo decided to use this opportunity.
'I'll show off while I have the chance.'
The Artist Association President or Golden Omnipotence. If he showed them this power now, they definitely wouldn't try anything foolish in the future.
Yeonwoo closed his eyes and measured probabilities. Searching for the Association President and Golden Omnipotence.
Then, he suddenly opened his eyes.
Golden Omnipotence, shining with golden light, refused approach. A defensive stance prepared by offering gold regularly.
'Forcing through this would just cause gold losses. Let's give up.'
He turned his gaze.
The Association President, suddenly opening her eyes from sealed fragments, looked at Yeonwoo with covetous eyes. Their gazes met. Rejecting the possibility of being enchanted, Yeonwoo heard a voice in his ear.
- Masterpiece. Come with me to the Seoul Arts Center-
She spoke. The world moved. To call Yeonwoo there.
Yeonwoo blocked it in panic by realizing a possibility, and quickly turned his gaze away.
And then, a few rare anomalous entities lurking around the world. Some owned by the company, some sealed, some hidden by groups.
At that moment, Yeonwoo thought. He remembered what the observatory researcher had said.
'The universe is a natural shield?'
Those things close to myths that could even block that mist. Earth, littered with things that even the anomalous civilization couldn't create.
'Could it be that Earth is protecting other stars? Isn't Earth the most dangerous?'
Yeonwoo suddenly didn't want to let go of the power in his hands, but not wanting to lose his sense of self, he reversed his contamination level.
Everything, including the dice, returned. To a state slightly more contaminated than before contact with the mist. Because he wasn't ready yet.
As the power disappeared and he fell into helplessness, Yeonwoo's eyes lit up with a thought.
'I need to find a way to maintain my sense of self even when contaminated.'
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