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Chapter 90




Chapter 7 Masked Ball (6)
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The professor’s plan was simple.
First, follow the script and lead Old Picture to the final stage.
During this process, even if the performance was so tight that not even a needle could be inserted, due to the nature of the content, Old Picture would inevitably go berserk at some point.
The professor and his team only needed to gauge the situation and escape before that happened, then enjoy the spectacle of the devastated miniature garden and the people cursing the executive committee.
The only danger was that if the performance was too sloppy while leading Old Picture to that point, the target might turn to them—
.
.
.
.
.
Whizz!
“I thought!
“Professor! What’s going on! Was this part of the plan?!”
“No way! Damn bastards! Even for the sake of realism, this is going too far!”
The group, who had been moving across the street with Old Picture and his puppets, repeating the process of taking cover and advancing, stopped in their tracks due to the sudden change in the situation and hid in a nearby alley, raising their voices.
Until now, the opponent had been firing blanks and performing the play excellently, but suddenly they started using live ammunition.
“Happon! I had a bit of a falling out with someone from the executive committee earlier, so maybe they just want to kill us! From what that person said, it seems they view your survival very negatively!”
“Yeah, that’s right! If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t keep a discarded pawn who has a deep grudge against my allies!”
Boom!
Crack!
“Damn! It would be easier to just kill us! Besides, we have a lot to offer if we’re killed! Lots of weapons! And that key too!”
“Then what about the play! This is a matter of life and death for the executive committee’s political career! It’s strange to ruin it just to eliminate a few risky elements! Look! Even as bullets rain down, not a single shot is fired near Old Picture, who is as big as a three-story house! They’re not planning to end the play! This is just an overly realistic performance! They’re aiming to avoid us, but if we actually stick our heads out, they’ll aim to miss...
Whizz! Whoosh!
Bang! Bang-bang!
.
.
.
.
“Is this still a play? Hey! If this keeps up, Shimohayaha will rise from his grave and give a standing ovation! This is 200% aimed shooting! They’re targeting our lives! This isn’t the time to sit around and act in a play!”
When Ian cautiously extended his bulletproof helmet on the end of his gun barrel, only to have it pierced by a bullet, the professor was speechless.
‘They are clearly trying to kill us. Moreover, they are quite well-trained. The shooting is precise, and the mortar only destroys nearby buildings to avoid touching Old Picture. ’
The play isn’t being abandoned. Instead, they are trying to kill the lead actor.
“Ah.”
Suddenly, a thought flashed through the professor’s mind, and he immediately pulled out the ‘script’ from his pocket.
Flip, flip,
=====
#2 The main characters save a family of civilians by diving into the fray. The head of the family, seeing the soldiers’ actions, feels a sense of trust.
#3 The group, dodging the rain of bullets, heads towards the escape point. They comfort the anxious family, who are experiencing this for the first time, and safely reach the escape point.
#4 The play ends. Act accordingly to the situation.
=====
These were the only instructions for what to do. The rest were just details about where the mortars would land, the positions of cover, and how to handle Old Picture.
‘Shake hands. Dive to save. Comfort... Indeed, the entire play is designed to portray the soldiers sacrificing themselves for the family. After gaining the family’s trust through their dedication, they make the target die in front of them? That’s a simple and stupid method. No one would feel sympathy or follow orders after seeing something like that. Even if they were stupid, they would know this plan would fail! I can’t understand it. How do they plan to tame Old Picture...’
Click.
Suddenly, a cold sensation ran through his mind.
If you can’t understand a single event, it’s your own fault for being careless. You must have missed a clue somewhere. But if you can’t understand the entire context, including that event, you need to go back to the beginning. The basic assumptions must be wrong.
‘If it’s a living being that can recognize the situation and is somewhat controllable... wouldn’t it be possible to educate it as well?’
‘Hahaha! The dome is already in an uproar because of this. That giant monster, the 47th district’s landmark, is officially coming under the dome’s control!’
“Hahaha...”
Recalling the words of the enemy, a sense of helplessness made him laugh.
The assumptions built on the information he had gathered were crumbling, and the truth hidden behind them was revealed. The plan to tame Old Picture, which seemed simple and stupid, was just a part of a much larger, more complex plan.
Believing even a part of what the nameless enemy said was a mistake.
“Haah-”
A sigh escaped him, but he felt fortunate to have realized this now. They had foolishly walked into a trap, but the blade hadn’t pierced them yet. They needed to act properly from now on.
First, they needed to verify if the new assumptions were true.
The professor, who had spat out saliva, looked sharply at Ian and Vex and asked,
“Do any of you have something to check the outside situation? It seems like we’ll be shot if we stick our heads out.”
“No.”
“Me neither. My greatsword is non-reflective, so I can’t use it for that.”
“Hmm... There’s no choice. Wait a moment.”
“Wait, what are you going to do...! Hey! Where are you going!”
Avoiding Ian’s restraining hand, the professor rolled out of the alley with all his might.
Whizz!
Crack!
The moment he stuck his head out, bullets hit the ground around him, kicking up dirt. But the shooting, which seemed about to pierce his body, abruptly stopped when he had crossed about half the street.
“Of course. It’s not that they no longer need to act out the play, but that the main character’s death itself is part of the play.”
Old Picture, with its three mannequins hidden in the alley and its massive body exposed in the middle of the street. The professor, standing in front of the body, clearly visible, took in the enemies standing in a line on rooftops and windows in the distance. They were wearing the dome’s uniform, and some even carried the dome’s large emblem, which was useless in urban combat. He also saw a silver exosuit, which seemed to be a model as it had no one inside.
‘A five-story commercial building at a three-way intersection. It’s exactly at the end of the monster’s walking route, the boundary line.’
The location where the enemies were positioned was quite familiar. It was the critical point marked in red on the map by the inspector from the dome when he first joined the play due to a mistake.
‘Under no circumstances should you bring the monster here.’
‘Why?’
‘Because the monster’s memory will be severed here.’
‘What happens if the memory is severed?’
‘What do you think happens when a sleepwalker wakes up?’
“He will open his eyes and see himself in a strange place, not knowing how he got there.”
Normally, when Old Picture reaches this boundary, it shows significant agitation but calms down upon seeing the street that matches its memories and returns to its hiding place, the house where the host lived with his family, to sleep. But if it reaches the boundary and the street doesn’t match its memories, it will go berserk and turn the entire 47th district, the miniature garden, into a kill zone.
‘This endpoint is where the host’s past memories and Old Picture’s current memories intersect. As a 3rd type variant, it’s a living being, so it must have accumulated memories as Old Picture, separate from the host’s memories.’
The judgment that the plan was sloppy needed to be corrected. It was quite sophisticated. Old Picture’s life is similar to that of a woman who miscarried and broke down. Holding the dead child’s body, she would try to feed it, muttering that this couldn’t be happening, that it was impossible, endlessly denying reality, a life filled with grief.
The enemy’s plan was to give Old Picture, who only knew how to deny reality while wandering in dark memories, a new goal.
The severed memory means the end of the host’s life. The family members, who were with him, would also meet the same fate, creating a situation similar to the host’s death, where a close and dear person dies in front of him, to connect the memory with reality and imprint the image of the one who caused the grief.
‘The political defeat of the executive committee, a powerful group, is a foregone conclusion. Once they fall, they will undoubtedly face the consequences of their own evil deeds. To survive, they could try to strengthen their political position, but there’s an easier, more certain, and more profitable way.’
The enemy’s shooting had already stopped. They knew they couldn’t stay here all day. If they went out, they would be exposed to the enemy’s fire, but if they stayed and held out, Old Picture’s memory would conflict with the end of the street, causing it to go berserk. In that case, they would have to leave their cover and run into the street where the enemies would open fire from all directions.
Crunch!
“You crazy bastard! What the hell did you do, jumping out into the open without any cover!”
“Just standing there! And you went out so openly! I thought you were panicking and going to die! You idiot! Idiot!”
When he returned to the flower bed where the group was, his two friends greeted him warmly.
“No, they won’t shoot. According to their plan, we need to die dramatically. Like getting a headshot while Old Picture is confused.”
“What do you mean? The play’s content has changed or something?”
“No, it’s a much more complex and simple situation.”
The professor pointed to the group in dome uniforms aiming at them.
“They look like they’re from Reptar.”
“What? Why is Reptar suddenly involved?”
“The ridiculous play to tame Old Picture was part of a much larger play from the beginning.”
The professor, sounding somewhat helpless, chuckled and said,
“They’ve been playing with us. This wasn’t just an event to get votes. The executive committee betrayed the dome and teamed up with Reptar to use Old Picture to completely overthrow the 47th district!”
He felt like a pebble caught in a massive current.
He had heard that Reptar’s activities had recently increased. The reason was obvious: the new underground bunker in the 45th district. Once the owner of the security key is determined, the 45th district will become a new dome city. This will create a massive wall from the 47th to the 45th and 43rd districts, including the areas near the 45th district. For Reptar, which relies on constant raids, this wall would force them to take a long detour, which would be costly in a world where fuel is as valuable as gold. The loss would be unbearable for Reptar, which maintains its group through raids without a production base. It was clear that Reptar would be pushed to the 30th district, so they had to stop the dome from taking over the 45th district.
“The desperate executive committee and Reptar, who would be pushed to the 30th district, must have worked well together.”
“But... wasn’t our provocation of the monster just a result of chance?”
“Did you forget? The dome manages the entire 47th district. You didn’t have a specific target in mind, right?”
“Hmm. That’s true. We just planned to drive around and look around before returning...”
Suddenly, Ian’s memory of that day flashed through his mind. The scavenger group sitting around a rusted drum, making a fire in a side alley at a fork in the road. A blocked path with a collapsed wall. A dark and dangerous alley. The paths he thought they should avoid, not knowing the area well.
“...We were led here? By me?”
“I told you. The dome’s people are specialists in urban combat. This is their home ground. It would be nothing for them to naturally guide a car to this spot.”
My schedule could be confirmed by just watching a bit of the broadcast, so they must have waited for the moment when I wasn’t around and the two of you went out. They brought in BDSM, who had the key, to provoke Old Picture. They forced us into their ridiculous plan, using threats. Since they planned to kill us anyway, they could use strong threats without worrying about the consequences. Once everything was prepared, they would imprint the image of the dome’s uniformed people killing a close and dear person in front of Old Picture. Then, by shooting or throwing grenades, they would drive Old Picture into a frenzy and make it run towards the dome, where it would attack the dome’s soldiers who came out in confusion.
‘Taking advantage of the chaos, the executive committee would attack from the inside, and Reptar’s special forces would attack from the outside.’
It was all a play. A massive play with the entire 47th district as the stage. They used the plan to tame Old Picture, which seemed simple and stupid, to deceive everyone, including the HIV and the dome’s inspector and civilians.
“Even Ishang and that guy Jack were just actors. They really took us for a ride.”
Indeed, it was clever and deadly. Once they reached this point, there was no way to avoid it, a situation almost like a dead end.
Squish!
Time was up. The monster’s body was bubbling, and if they lingered any longer, it would go berserk due to the mismatch with the host’s memories. At that moment, mortars would rain down on the flower bed where they were hiding.
“Damn. They say a shrimp gets crushed in a whale fight. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come to the 47th district.”
“You should speak clearly. In a way, we stabbed the whale’s back in the 45th district.”
“I understand the situation now. If we run at full speed while the monster is still in the situation...”
“They wouldn’t have planned such a large-scale operation without considering this. The moment we move, we’ll be riddled with bullets. We’ve been kept alive so far because Old Picture needed to see us die after reaching the critical point.”
“Then what do we do! If we go forward, we’ll die according to their script!”
“What can we do?”
The professor slowly stood up, advancing to be clearly visible to Old Picture, and said,
“Ultimately, a play is made by the actors. The key to this incident is this creature. The play isn’t over yet, and the script says to finish it as you see fit.”
Thinking back, that Jack guy had laughed while talking about using Old Picture for terrorist acts. How much they must have laughed at me, moving around without knowing their plan.
I can’t just let this slide. Since I played along for free, I’ll at least control the finale.
“The executive committee and Reptar’s friends planned this meticulously, but maybe because they learned everything from books and tried to execute it all at once, their understanding of the characters is lacking.”
The plan was based on all of Old Picture’s behavioral principles. But there was a fact not included in the reports about it.
Why.
Why did it die? How, when, in what situation, and for what reason was it so sad? Why did the host’s last memory, of holding his family’s hands and walking the street, have such significance?
The professor knew part of the reason. A few years ago, at the end of a normal ‘play,’ the monster’s mental state left a small memory as it cried and returned home.
The professor tore a small piece of his undershirt and gave it to the two.
“Wet it and plug your ears. You need to put it in deep enough to reach your eardrums. I’m going to create an opening, and I’ll probably pass out. So, hold on and carry me to our car.”
“What about the snipers?”
“They won’t aim. The ones who only learned from books can’t handle it. But just in case, Vex, secure the alley at 1 o’clock.”
“...I’ll do my best.”
Despite his playful tone, an undeniable tension was evident. Ian, watching Vex move silently, quietly stuffed the wet cloth into his ear and held the professor’s shoulder.
“What are the odds?”
“...60%.”
“What are the odds of you surviving?”
“...30%.”
“Damn.”
Ian’s voice, filled with concern, tightened, but he released the professor’s shoulder. He knew that asking wouldn’t make the professor reveal the method or send someone else.
“I can’t control myself if you die.”
“Try breaking a leg.”
“I don’t even want to control it.”
“...”
Thump.
Ian pushed the professor’s back, indicating there was nothing more to say.
“Go now, Gambler. I hope the goddess who was with you during the coin toss is