Chapter 36 Part 6: Connivance.

When I blinked, the scenery around me completely changed.
From a space bustling with students just a moment ago… to a corridor with nothing.

Flickering lights, irregular.
The sound of bones and muscles being crushed somewhere beyond.
The occasional gunshot and scream, followed by silence.

I compulsively raised my arm to check the mark.
I think they administered the drug this morning… I just have to hope the effect lasts.

“This is… interesting.”

I deliberately made a flippant remark, but the situation was far from good, even as a joke.
Because in hallucinations, memories I’d forced down tend to resurface sporadically.
And now, accustomed to the protection of the drug, it was clear I wouldn’t be able to overcome my emotions.

No, saying I could overcome them is strange.
I’ve just been avoiding the fight all this time.
Pretending to be fine when I’m still not over it.
Like a child’s naive thought that if you don’t think it exists, it doesn’t actually exist.

And the price for that would surely be terrible.

“…Guess there’s no choice.”

I deliberately mumbled a bit loudly.
Whatever just took someone’s life over there probably heard my voice.
And it would be rolling its eyes, trying to figure out what kind of being I am.
Then, it will suddenly ask.

“Hey, you? Are you a big sister or an auntie?”

The innocent voice, typical of a child, was heard.
The girl, who appeared in a place where there was nothing a moment ago, smiled innocently.
She shook her body as if the oversized lab coat were a dress, staring at me.
I smiled back, staring at my own face from the past, which I thought I had buried in my memory.

My past self frowned as if she didn’t like that smile.
Her pupils, magnified to the extreme in this intense situation, stared at me as if dissecting every detail.

“I asked a question, you should answer. Are you a big sister or an auntie?”

“…Usually, it’s hard to answer a question like that, isn’t it?”

“That’s right! The important thing is the reaction.”

My past self, tilting her head slightly, smiled and added.

“You’re a big sister!?”

Immediately after, my past self disappeared.
At the same time, I felt a chilling killing intent as if my eyes were being gouged out.
An ordinary person would rush to protect their head, but I know.

“That’s… quite a prank.”

Saying that, I blocked the piercing strike my past self had unleashed.
If I hadn’t blocked it, some of my ribs and my heart would probably have been ripped out.
As I thought I was lucky to have blocked it in time, my past self, whose wrist was caught, rolled her eyes.
Then, she calmly scrutinized my appearance with her eyes, throwing out several questions.

“…What are you? A crude imitation of me?”

“Take a guess.”

“Or are you another one of my sisters made by the older sisters and brothers?”

“Could be.”

“Big sister, you’re trembling. But it’s not the trembling of someone lying.”

“…I wonder.”

“You’re scared, right? You’re afraid. I don’t know the details, but you don’t like this.”

As expected of my past self, she grasped the situation incredibly well.
Usually, grasping the situation doesn’t change the outcome, but in this special situation, it’s different.
By now, she must have finished her rational judgment.

Apart from the fact that I’m unbearably afraid of this situation.
She must have recalled the ends of the failures I’d witnessed countless times as a test subject.
In this situation, there’s no need to elaborate.

In fact, my past self calmly nodded and concluded.

“Ah, I was the fake one?”

“…Sorry.”

“I don’t know why you’re apologizing, but it’s okay. It’s because I was trash.”

My past self said that and chuckled.
Then, she wiped all emotion from her face and calmly started to vomit out her thoughts.

“But, I don’t want to die yet.”

“Who would want to die?”

“That’s right, there are still many things I want to do. I need to see if my parents are still alive… and I have to soothe this mister…”

“…Haha.”

“And there are so many other things I want to do. I can’t just be disposed of here. I don’t know about you.”

I wanted to say that I understood, but I held back.
What my past self needed now wasn’t understanding, but something else.

“So, big sister.”

My past self smiled brightly.

“I want to live… so could you maybe let yourself be eaten?”

At that point, I made my decision.
This is the end of the conversation with the past in the hallucination.
Since it’s already happened, I had no hesitation in dealing with her.

No, I had to have none.
I felt something like bugs crawling under my skin, but I ignored it.
My pupils, widened with fear, scanned the surroundings to ensure safety, but I ignored it.
My body, tense and ready to kill at any moment, I kept tense.

I don’t know about Gong Jinhoo.
But I didn’t think the vice principal would let me kill another student through a basic mistake.

“Ah, I guess there’s no choice. But, big sister. I understand you.”

“…Because nobody wants to die.”

“Yes.”

Saying that, my past self disappeared.
It wasn’t becoming invisible or teleporting.
It was a high-speed movement performed by watching the opponent’s eyes and moving when they blink.
At the same time, a close-range attack aimed at a vital point was my childhood favorite method.

Naturally, it wouldn’t work.
Even if I didn’t underestimate my opponent and went all out, the future was inevitable.
It was even more so since I was repeating the same habit my past self hadn’t abandoned.

“Tch.”

Immediately after, my past self, who had deflected my counterattack, clicked her tongue and distanced herself.
After a few exchanges, she fixed her broken arm and burned her eyes with determination.
I watched the scene for a moment, then couldn’t resist advising.

“You should run away soon. Do you think they’re stupid enough to erase a successful test subject just because it’s a fake?”

“…Big sister, why are you suddenly using formal language?”

“It’s my choice. And if you’re going to run, don’t use the researcher’s passage.”

“Thanks for that. I don’t know how you know, but it’s okay.”

“And lastly. You should give up on trying to kill me.”

“Are you feeling sympathetic or something?”

I didn’t bother to answer.
I just held my trembling arm, hoping this unpleasant time would end quickly.

I was sure I would have nightmares today.
I would feel the creepy sensation of researchers watching me trapped in a narrow space.

Unfortunately, the lab was a very safe place, so I couldn’t die.
If I try to wake up from the nightmare by dying, I’ll be beaten even more severely.
They prevent me from thinking about suicide by punishing me to that extent.

So, to put it metaphorically.
It’s like… an elephant in a circus that can’t throw off its shackles even though it’s fully grown.

“You look like you have a lot on your mind? If you do that here, you’ll die.”

“You can try.”

“I was going to even if you didn’t say so. I think it’s time for me to go.”

I already knew where she had to go.
To get the minimum leash to control herself, a monster left alone in society.
She was going to save the researchers whom she had begged God to let her tear to pieces just yesterday.

She vaguely knows, too.
That her parents were murdered immediately after she was kidnapped.

“…Haha.”

Memories I wanted to forget began to surface.
I don’t know when I started to get sentimental, but it can’t be helped.
There’s no way I, who know everything, can do anything about my past self.
So, I was just going to stall for time until the special training ended, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible.

I could feel the effects of the drug wearing off.
The cleaner who had been erasing my emotions every time they welled up had clocked out.
Naturally, if I stayed like this, I would surely lose control.

I wish my past self would at least stay still.
It was obvious that she was preparing for a final blow.

So, I also prepared for a final blow.
If I killed my past self, the hallucination would end one way or another.

“Don’t blame me even if you die.”

“I wouldn’t blame you.”

I forced a smile instead of answering.
And I temporarily released the output of cell regeneration to reconstruct my body.
Not a body to continue life activities, but a body to crush the enemy in one blow.

Once a series of motions is complete, the time I can survive is about a few seconds.
It’s literally a deadly technique that will kill me if I don’t reconstruct my body in that short time.

But, well. What can I do?

“I’m sorry, big sister! But I can’t die here yet!”

My past self kicked off the corridor one step faster.
In a few seconds, I saw her, who had reached subsonic speed, unleash a piercing strike.

In response to that scene, I also kicked off the corridor.
One step to reach subsonic speed. Without stopping there, increasing speed to supersonic speed on the second step.
And with that speed, extending the blade drawn out from my elbow, the final third step.

Instantly, the body reached supersonic speed and a shockwave swept the surroundings.
And, I feel the distinct sensation of having cut through a life.

“Huu…”

With a long sigh, I unconsciously reconstructed my body.
And I stared at my past self, cut in half, and smiled bitterly.

Starting with my past self melting, the surroundings slowly began to disappear.
Then, the first thing I saw was a somewhat opaque space.
I could also see other students watching from around, probably because I was isolated here.

Without a word, I turned my head towards the vice principal, and the announcement was heard.

“Well, the last student has been eliminated… Special training is over! Everyone did a great job. Rest well and see you tomorrow!”

I stood still, watching the students disappear.
After a while, all the students were gone, and I saw the vice principal, who was standing on the platform, slowly coming down.

“Let’s have a talk today?”

…I probably won’t be able to sleep today.