novelraw Chapter 93 : Chapter 93
Chapter 93 : Chapter 93
Chapter 93: Freak (3)
When I became able to understand human speech, the first words I heard were these.
-How hideous.
The person who said that was the woman who gave birth to me.
Until she passed away from illness a few years later.
She told me many things.
-Poor thing. Whom do you resemble.
-I'll turn off the light. I'll sing you a lullaby.
-Wear a mask when you go out. You must not make others uncomfortable.
No one liked my face.
Even the person who gave birth to me was like that, what more is there to say.
It didn't take long to realize that the person who showed me the greatest kindness was her.
-That damn woman died leaving a monster behind.
-Wouldn't it be okay if we just buy a mask or something for him?
-Even a penny is a waste for a guy like that.
Those words made up my life.
It was at 12 years old that I started wearing a ‘mask’.
A mask I started wearing by roughly punching eyeholes in a flour sack.
As long as that white film covered my face, I could be an eccentric.
Not a disgusting monster, but a curious eccentric.
“Why do you wear that?”
“How did you make it?”
“I want to wear one too!”
If I were to pick the happiest moment in my life, it was this time.
In the new school, in the class where everyone gathered, I became the center for the first time.
Interest, not hatred, embraced me.
Oh my, I still can't forget that warmth.
But those good days didn't last long.
P.E. class.
The day everyone returned to the classroom due to a sudden downpour.
I didn't know.
Young me didn't know that a white sack becomes see-through when wet.
The first thing heard was a girl's scream.
The prettiest girl in the class screamed.
The reason was, of course, my face.
At the time, I liked her.
The reason was simple.
Because she was pretty.
Therefore, I could understand her.
If one can like someone just for being pretty, one can dislike someone just for being ugly.
I knew that fact better than anyone.
And I hated that fact more than anyone.
Especially when the word ‘pitiful’ finally came out of her true mouth.
Even more so when she sent a compassionate gaze.
The day I first killed a person was that day.
After that day, I, who was an eccentric, became a monster again.
A being that cannot mix with humans.
And later when I became a real Freak, the first thought I had was this.
‘Hideous.’
My face became even more hideous.
I had become not even human.
I faced myself who gained the power of a Troll and ended up gaining that face as well.
While displeasure surged, on the other hand, I thought it was like me.
If it’s a real monster, couldn't it look like this?
But at the same time, I was seized by an impulse.
The impulse that I don't want to show this face to anyone.
I don't know why.
Since I'm a Freak now anyway, what does face matter.
But nevertheless, I didn't want to show it.
Rejection rose from deep within my heart.
I put on a white mask.
Because inside it, I can be free.
This time I wore a mask that doesn't get wet in water nor burn in fire.
I wore a mask that isn't pierced by bullets nor cut by swords.
But today, that boundary was broken.
The mask was split.
By a boy's sword.
And I ended up showing my face.
I couldn't breathe.
I heard the sound of the single string in the center of my heart snapping.
‘No.’
Something twisted under my skin.
Flesh swelled and bones screamed.
Pain rushed in, but at the same time, it was strangely sweet.
‘This is…… what.’
Fingertips melted down.
Blood and flesh entangled and regenerated.
I couldn't control my body.
‘Why are you doing this willfully?’
Something raised its head inside my body.
It was an unpleasant sound.
Sound of flesh boiling inside me, sound of blood turning over.
That was clearly me.
But at the same time, it was something that swallowed me.
-How hideous.
-Disgusting.
-Is that even human?
Erased words revived one by one.
Those voices scratched the walls inside my head.
“Shut up…….”
I shook my head violently.
But it was already too late.
Reason scattered like powder, and only the beast's instinct remained.
And that guy appeared before my eyes.
Ryu Jinwoo.
The guy who made me like this.
‘If only it wasn't for that guy, this wouldn't have happened.’
Such thought was brief.
Inside me settled into silence.
The reason was only one.
Because he had the same eyes as that girl I liked.
When I opened my mouth, shrieks flowed out instead of words.
High heat spewed instead of breath.
Something crawled out from inside my body.
Stomach twisted and throat burned.
Chest swelled.
I realized at that moment.
I can no longer be human.
The monster inside me has completely awakened.
Gunshots rang out and bullets dug into flesh.
Someone's scream was heard.
My body began to move.
***
A huge form rose within the blood-red fog.
The ground shook roughly and the air was pressed heavily.
What was in front of us could no longer be called human.
It had a human silhouette, but its size was too huge.
I had to tilt my head way back to barely see its face.
Gonta's berserk form, ‘Flesh Freak’.
The guy shaped the form of a giant Troll by himself.
His size seemed like two trucks joined together.
Arms were thick as pillars and muscles were swollen as if about to burst.
Skin was covered with mixed lumps of flesh, and green fluid flowed freely from every pore.
Its identity was digestive juice; the guy was wrapping his entire skin with his own digestive juice.
Green fluid was boiling bubblingly on the surface of the flesh.
It was melting even his own skin and flesh.
However, the Troll's peculiar regeneration ability restored the melted flesh in an instant.
It was shaping the so-called ‘autophagy’ in a bizarre form.
The monster revealed before my eyes.
This was Gonta.
To be precise, what used to be Gonta.
The guy didn't say anything anymore.
Just the sound of air boiling, and bizarre sounds like ‘Uuuuuu’ leaked out.
Perhaps reason doesn't exist for him.
Because a Freak reaching a berserk state loses reason and starts rampaging.
Nevertheless, the guy's gaze was persistently directed in one direction.
It was none other than me.
‘……For real?’
I try moving slightly sideways just in case.
In front of me, the man wearing a hat was still firing his gun away.
Naturally, shouldn't he be staring at the person attacking him?
But it was clear.
The guy's gaze was directed at me.
Bang! Dadang! Bang—!
Roughly stretching bullets embedded themselves grain by grain into the guy's skin.
However, wounds being engraved was only for a moment.
The guy regenerated his skin quickly.
Meaningless bullets embedded in the monster's chest melted down just like that.
“Damn it, this is nonsense.”
The man holding the gun muttered as if lost in a daze.
The next moment.
Kwaang—!
Rough explosion sound burst out.
A huge hand was swung.
The body of the man who was shooting the gun pierced through the adjacent building and disappeared just like that.
The wall of the wooden building collapsed and a dust cloud rose.
It was instantaneous.
‘Fast.’
Throwing my body backward, I looked at the guy's eyes.
Gaze still fixed on me.
The strike just now was also aimed at me.
Though the man shooting the gun in front of me got swept away instead.
‘Can't let guard down just because he is big.’
That speed at which the arm was swung just now.
It was at a level unbelievable to have come from such a huge body.
Without a single exaggeration, it was in the blink of an eye.
That means, I must not miss the guy's movement even for a moment.
Above all, the problem was that the guy wasn't a simple giant.
As soon as that thought passed, a heterogeneous presence rose from between the guy's flesh lumps.
‘Crawling out like a ghost.’
It was tentacles.
Those things that were pulled out even in the flesh lump state and turned the surroundings into chaos.
From the guy's back, shoulders, and forearms, long lines were pulled out from the skin one by one, scattering sticky fluid.
At a glance, it looked like maggots stretching their bodies long.
It was undeniably a nauseating sight.
Irregularly wriggling flesh tentacles fluttered as if gaining life and stretched in all directions.
Swaaek—!
Sound cutting the air fiercely.
Five or six strands of tentacles stretched straight toward me.
Following that, three tentacles from another direction approached drawing curves with a time difference.
Precise movements digging toward one point, exactly me.
“Tsk.”
Body reacted automatically.
I lowered my waist, rolled forward, and immediately kicked the ground throwing my body sideways, dodging each trajectory.
I dodged the straight attacks, but flesh pieces stretching in curves were waiting immediately.
‘It will reach.’
At that moment when tentacles were stretching, there was no blind spot.
My body was already in the air dodging the straight attacks.
Looking at the tentacles surging toward me, I twisted my neck and waist with full power.
Chiik—!
Sound of corrosion as if touching strong acid rang out.
Smoke rose from my chest.
“Phew—.”
I barely avoided direct contact with tentacles, but one strand brushed past my uniform.
Green digestive juice splattered on buttons immediately started boiling roughly.
Metal melted down, and the surface of the uniform woven with special fiber swelled like foam.
“Well, it would melt metal too.”
Lips moved automatically.
Then the man who was next to me screamed.
“Keuaaak!!”
He was the man who was hit by a tentacle earlier before Gonta completely took the giant's form.
Before he could raise his upper body, scattered digestive juice covered his arm again.
In an instant, skin swelled and fingertips began to melt.
Liquid mixed with blood dripped onto the ground.
Pain-filled screams rang around, spreading a sticky smell of iron.
Our eyes met with the Troll once again.
The guy was looking at me with the same gaze.
But for some reason, this time it felt like the guy was saying this.
‘You will become like that too.’
The situation was that simple.
If I don't do something about the monster in front of my eyes right now, the next turn was me.
Whether melting down or being eaten.
I gripped my sword.
Subtle vibration felt at my fingertips.
Dduk—
At that moment, one tentacle stretching from the guy's body was cut off and fell to the floor.
The cut spot wriggled, and soon a new piece of flesh soared up filling the gap.
It didn't even take one breath.
And again, another tentacle soared up slitheringly from that spot.
‘Melting his own flesh with digestive juice to use it? And regeneration on top of that.’
Bizarre.
Also, strange.
Thus the given name. Freak.
What is in front of me right now was the epitome of that name, and the worst form with the word berserk attached to it.
“Too early. Way too early.”
Words leaked out like a sigh.
This is not a level a cadet can do anything about.
It's a level where a high-ranking Hero, or at least an instructor must come to respond.
Right now within this Hero Land, there would be few people who can deal with the guy.
Thud—
The guy took one step forward.
Tentacles dancing like coral reefs on those huge shoulders.
And arm muscles wriggling as if to crush anything at any moment.
Reason as a human disappeared, but the beast's instinct to ‘eat’ was vivid.
‘Can't be helped.’
I tried not to use this method.
There was no other way.
I possessed a sure-kill technique valid at any point.
“Phew—.”
Inhaled deeply.
Lungs felt hot as if burning.
Gathered the center of the whole body to the toes and lowered the knees.
Strength went into the lower body.
Slowly, vision narrowed and noise disappeared from inside the head.
Thus preparation for only one act was completed.
A hidden move I never took out until now.
‘Run away.’
That is, to bolt.
Kwagak—!
As I kicked off the floor, dust rose explosively.
Body leaned and vision blurred.
Leaving the guy behind my back, I ran with full power.