Guide to the Fallen World - Chapter 25

#25. The Tragedy of Sakhalin

A racehorse runs looking only forward. It cannot see left or right because blinders block its vision.

And certain emotions can also block a person’s vision. Yeowon admitted it. Her vision was narrowed by excessive expectations.

Jay had clearly said it. A dystopia. And yet, did she still want to go?

At the time, she simply brushed it off. She thought it wouldn’t be too late to see for herself and be disappointed.

And now.

Shelter Sakhalin, which she spent a full day exploring, was a pure white tomb.

It wasn’t long before she realized that corpses were piled beneath the snow. To think she had suggested making a snowman in a place like this. It was no wonder Dohyeok was troubled.

Shelter Sakhalin was no longer a shelter where people lived. This place was a city of the deceased, fallen into eternal slumber.

However, it wasn’t as if there were absolutely no living people.

The first person they encountered was an old man whom she couldn’t tell whether he was a mummy or a living person.

His appearance, as if skin had been stretched over bones, was clearly miserable at a glance, but it wasn’t clearly visible as he was covered by a hat and thick padded clothes. Even in the midst of starving to death in a wretched state, he possessed a certain extraordinary air, and crucially, the old man was someone who knew courtesy.

“Food… could you share some food with me?”

Yeowon didn’t refuse the old man’s request. She immediately pulled out a thermos and prepared a cup of soup, handing it over to Dohyeok to give to him.

The old man ate it and died. He died in tears, saying it was the first time in a long while he had eaten warm, proper food.

It was the price for appeasing his final hunger.

“It seems his organs couldn’t withstand it after starving for so long.”

Yeowon struggled to accept this bitter reality.

That evening, she and Dohyeok built a stone grave to bury the old man.

By the next morning, the sorrow from the day before still lingered, but an incident occurred that reversed the previous day’s bitterness.

Although it’s called an incident, she wasn’t really swept up in anything. Yeowon was merely a witness. Inside the central building of the shelter, she ended up watching a hologram of some madman and a murderer fighting each other with knives.

She didn’t know their identities yet. However, Yeowon did know that there were people there. It was she who had secretly sent a drone out of curiosity about who they might be, and it was she who had turned on the hologram and observed them.

Everything was of her own volition.

She hadn’t expected them to be fighting. The violence was so intense that Yeowon hesitated, wondering if she should intervene. But she knew that getting involved in something like that would be dangerous. So she hesitated.

The fight was soon over.

That was within her understanding. A bystander has no right to interfere.

The shocking thing happened afterward.

She saw the victor eating the loser. The knife fight that had just occurred was not for survival, but for a meal.

“Ugh.”

Dohyeok turned off the hologram in place of Yeowon, who was retching.

At this point, Yeowon released all the drones she had at her disposal to observe every part of Shelter Sakhalin. As a result, she realized that there were only two living people in Shelter Sakhalin.

One was a madman engrossed in his meal.

The other was a patient suffering from an illness.

The room she observed through the hologram had two beds. However, the thermal camera revealed warmth from only one occupant. The other person beside them was already stiff.

Even the person who was still alive was deeply ill, barely clinging to life.

Yeowon couldn’t help but be reminded of her past as she watched the figure writhing in agony. She recalled the days she spent as a living corpse, confined to a bed.

She wasn’t sure if intervening was the right thing to do, but surely offering pain relief to someone in such visible torment couldn’t be wrong.

She couldn’t ignore the lesson she’d learned from giving the old man food, only to see him die as a result.

Even after that, she couldn’t reach a conclusion, and although the words he used were slightly different each time, Dohyeok’s answer was consistently the same, no matter how many times she asked for his opinion.

“Your decision is my decision, Yeowon. Whatever you choose, I’ll follow.”

It was both a reflection of his sincerity and a subtle way of teaching her that the choice ultimately had to be hers.

Another day passed in this mental struggle.

By then, Yeowon came to the conclusion that if she was going to regret it whether she did it or not, she might as well just do it.

It was just a matter of giving him some painkillers. It was better to regret helping than to regret not helping at all.

She didn’t know if intervening was the right thing to do. Still, she chose to do it. Dohyeok helped her make that very decision.

“I don’t know what illness it is, but it seems there’s no chance of recovery. I’ve been keeping an eye on him because I thought you were concerned, and his pulse is irregular.”

“Pulse? You didn’t see him directly, you only saw him through the hologram. How can you know that?”

“You can see it by observing the rise and fall of his chest.”

Since he said that, there was no reason to hesitate any longer. A little pain relief on his final journey wouldn’t hurt, would it? Since he was going to die anyway, she decided to give him a narcotic patch.

With that in mind, Yeowon went to find the patient. Of course, Yeowon didn’t have anything like a narcotic patch among her belongings. But Dohyeok had it. Because he was an Esper.

Dohyeok, taking out the patch at Yeo-won’s request, was inwardly impressed.

To be honest, he’d always admired her, even during her repeated attempts at simulation trials. Her kindness and genuine concern for others were remarkable, qualities that truly defined a good-hearted person.

In that moment, Dohyeok deeply understood why Jay had kept Yeowon confined for so long.

Even after all the warnings and lessons, Yeowon couldn’t ignore someone in need. That innate goodness made her special and vulnerable.

The tenderness of showing compassion for the dying.

Yeowon still possessed the humanity that the rest of humankind had abandoned in order to survive.

“Here, take this…”

The unexpected happened at that moment. Just as Dohyeok was about to apply the narcotic patch, the patient, who had been clearly showing signs of illness, awakened as an Esper.

Dohyeok knew that such cases could happen. As death approached due to a severe illness, the body could awaken to survive. It was a rare occurrence, but a simple mechanism of self-preservation.

The problem was that there was a guide present.

Newly awakened espers were unstable. While it was less likely than a rampage, they could lose control, thrash in pain, and destroy their surroundings.

That very Esper, without any control over his power, reached out toward Yeowon. The movement of kicking off the bed and jumping out was uncharacteristically agile for someone who had been a patient. The voice that had been emitting faint groans also became clear.

“You Shanghai bastards! How dare you show your faces here!”

This was precisely why Dohyeok had been assigned to accompany Yeowon. Without hesitation, he grabbed the Esper by the scruff of their neck and slammed them into the wall with force.

“Khaaagh!”

“Hey. Calm down. We’re not from Shanghai, we’re—”

“I’ll kill you! All of you! I’ll slaughter all those Alliance bastards!”

The Esper’s frenzied screams held no trace of reason. Forgetting his own newly awakened state, the opponent was overusing his abilities and deliberately fueling a rampage.

Dohyeok quickly assessed the situation. Clearing up the misunderstanding through conversation was impossible. Immediate action was required.

The moment he decided, Dohyeok reached out to cover Yeowon’s startled eyes, shielding her from what came next. With a burst of telekinesis, he tore the Esper’s limbs apart.

“Argh! Aaaahhh!”

Even though she couldn’t see anything, she could hear the gurgling, choking sounds of his last breaths. Dohyeok belatedly realized this and covered Yeowon’s ears as well.

“Don’t listen.”

And so, their three days in the Sakhalin shelter came to an end.

Yeowon’s mental state was shattered.

***

Dohyeok glanced worriedly at Yeowon, who was curled up in a ball with her face buried in her knees.

“I want to go back to the base.”

As Yeowon said that, she began to cry. Part of this outcome was exactly what the Director intended, but the rest was a tragedy born of her own carelessness.

He should have noticed the signs of awakening before it happened, yet he hadn’t.

Exposing the Guide to danger was a grave mistake, but an even greater mistake was thoughtlessly mentioning to the Guide that the Esper had awakened to survive.

Having learned the full story, the Guide was devastated by guilt.

On the first day, she met an old man starving to death.

On the second day, she witnessed a fight to the death between a murderer and a madman.

On the third day, she witnessed a human being awaken as an Esper to escape death. And in the process, contrary to her good intentions, he had to commit killing.

Each and every one was a horrific experience.

Yeowon returned to base, reflecting on these events. And she realized. It was all a staged performance.

Jay greeted the returning Yeowon with an unconcerned attitude.

“You’re back. Did you enjoy the tour of the shelter?”

“…Does it look like I did?”

“Hmm. Sorry about that. I did monitor everything through the satellite. If I’d known it would turn out this way, I’d have sent you to a shelter with even slightly better security… But, well, this was the only nearby option.”

“It’s not that it was the only option. It was because it was there that you sent me, wasn’t it?”

“…Ah. You caught me.”

“You’re insane.”

Yeowon raised her hollow gaze to Jay. If it had been just the two of them, she might have unleashed a tirade of curses like she had about a year ago.

But now, Dohyeok was standing nearby. She didn’t want him to see the worst sides of her.

Perhaps because she couldn’t fully vent her anger, she suddenly remembered something Jay had said in the past. She had pretended to be composed and uttered those words while passing through the tunnel connecting the Ark and Shelter Noah.

‘Because I’ve accepted it. That this will be my life.’

She had said that.

That’s why it’s even more pathetic. What grounds did I have for saying such a thing?

I didn’t know anything. I was arrogant and ignorant. Jay probably knew that and showed me reality.

I should just admit it. Except for being a Guide, I am nothing.