Kidnapped Dragons

Chapter 368: Episode 102: White Bird (9)

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[Conceptualisation (SS)]

Target: Temple of Providence

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Soon after freeing himself, Yu Jitae activated his authority with the Temple of Providence as the target. The world that had been shining in his sight immediately transformed into a familiar form. 

He was standing in a place that looked like a company office. The Judges and the Punisher were all inside the room looking like humans.

[Shapeless Sword (SS)]

Within the reconstructed world, Yu Jitae raised a kitchen knife. It was unclear why his authority had interpreted his killing intent into a kitchen knife but that was not important. 

“–!”

After a shout, one of them dashed at him with an axe in hand.

His knife dug into the man’s neck. “Kuug…!” The guy was about to fall while twisting his body but Yu Jitae grabbed him by the collar to lift him back up before stabbing his stomach with the knife. He pierced it again and again. The insides of the existence interpreted into a human form were starting to pour out but Yu Jitae did not stop.

Slowly, the Vintage Clock’s subordinates began to realise that [Conceptualisation] was at work.

An authority was a higher concept compared to an existence, and it was hard for humans to even feel the activation of an authority. The existences here that had been leading an eternal life outside the boundary looked at Yu Jitae who had managed to jump over their fences.

“—!”

They shouted something out loud, but the blurry noises failed to reach Yu Jitae’s brain.

His darkened vision shattered into a mess. 

Someone ran towards him, and he was doing the same by the time he realised it.

Madness – he had already gone crazy. Not a single thing about the current situation was in his mind.

Stabb–

His precious one was going further away. Resurfacing in his mind was how he had last treated it – how he cursed the Vintage Clock. 

As he had always done; because it always accepted his resentment; he thought it was naturally okay to do it.

Regret, remorse and loneliness which he thought he had forgotten reappeared in his mind. And so did the bird’s vestige and its constant words.

And all those plentiful expressions–

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: (´•̥ω•̥`)…>

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] states it is working without taking a single rest…>

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] is depressed.>

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: Q.Q>

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] is happy.>

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: (∗•̀ᴗ• ́∗)ง > 

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] hates Yu Jitae.>

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: (๑•̀□• ́๑) > 

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] alerts you that it is on a vacation.>

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: (¦3X[ ░░░ ])

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: (╬☉д☉)>

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: (╬◣д◢)>

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: ( ́•ω•)✂╰⋃╯>

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: (๑>ꇴ<๑) Lol>

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] welcomes you.>

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] welcomes you.>

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] welcomes you.>

.

.

.

Stab–

Stabb–

Thrust—

He used to curse it a lot, ‘Why did you trap me in here?’ over and over until he was too tired to continue. At one point, he was too exhausted and dropped everything: he dropped passion, he dropped greed, he dropped emotions, he dropped hatred and he dropped love.

Like how one does not put much meaning to the revolution of the moon, his lives had become an astronomical phenomenon making it meaningless for him to curse, resent and weep.

Vintage Clock, who had silently taken in all his curses until he reached that point, had to hear his curses even at the last moment.

[You will. Definitely. Become happy.]

If I knew that was the last, I would have made it good, pretty, nice, kind and friendly so that you could feel our bond. Using what you liked the most, watching your favourite movies, eating the healthy food you wanted me to eat and as ‘me’ who you had treasured the most…

Stabb—

I would have done so much more for you.

Stabb—

Would there be happiness at the end of this life? Even if there is, will I be able to find it alone in a world without you? If I kill, kill and kill, will I manage to kill everything that I couldn’t before? 

This shrewd, cowardly, doubtful, lacking, ungifted me; tired from all the burdensome and exhausting problems of life; forgotten by people, discarded by the world, with evaporated connections – my last resort, the only one that always came to the aid of a person like me.

Stab–

However, I cannot take you back anymore.

I no longer have you.

Stabb–

I used to be neither this nor that – too young to be called old, too crooked to be called a human, sloppy for a sinner, too exhausted to live on, too incompetent to die…

And I had you to be called alone.

From the rise of the sun to the scattering lights of the moon brightening up my room – each and every moment of my life had you by my side.

Stab–

You, are my teacher, a friend, a father and a mother, a punny wagging its tail, a friend listening to complaints over shots of whiskey, a roommate waking me up when I lay down asleep in the midst of dirty mud, a middle-aged woman praying hand-in-hand.

Stabb–

Even though you have left, my life will go on. You will forever be a faded picture, a scar on the back of my hand, a wound in my heart;

A windmill with a missing wing,

A half-eaten poisonous apple,

An ankle chopped by a trap,

An ashtray on a rainy day; trampled soggy moss on a summer day.

And,

An absence of something so precious and pitiful,

That no language of this world could ever express.

White bird, oh white bird.

How can you leave me like this.

I haven’t even conveyed all my gratitude yet…

***

“Kuuk… P, please do not kill me…”

Their predictions were off.

Because they thought he had only regressed 7 times, and because the information had been restricted by the Vintage Clock, they did not have a clear grasp on how strong of an existence Yu Jitae was and thought [Bridle] was enough to neutralise him for the punishment.

Yu Jitae raised his knife to the Judge’s forehead. The knife soaked in blood was already as blunt as his crumbling heart, and the edge of the blade was now more of a stump.

He slashed the middle-aged man’s forehead with the knife. Screaming out loud, the man struggled. The blunt knife had trouble properly digging into the flesh so he had to add more power than usual.

“Kuuuaaaakk–!”

Next, he brought it to the man’s ears. He clenched his grip and moved it back and forth, using it like a saw. Even though it was too blunt to slice it neatly, it worked out after a diligent effort. Besides, a human had two ears for him to slice in the first place.

“Ahhhhhhkkk! P, please– kuuk— ughh–!”

He fed the sliced ears through the mouth. The man also had a nose. Unfortunately, there was only one this time.

“Huup–! Huuaauk–! Kuaaauuhkk! Kahhak, kakk!”

Stabbing the knife through the tongue, he pulled it out. He left the eyes as they were but instead, he sliced the eyelids out. The man had to open his eyes until the very moment of his death, and he would be forced to see many things because of his strong vitality. 

After finally breaking the two legs of the Judge, he raised his body.

Flashing in his mind was Oscar’s murmur. 

The scribe was not recording, was it? 

He looked at the scribe who was trembling heavily with a fedora on his head. After walking up, he grabbed his fingers.

“U, uuhhkk…!”

And snapped them one by one.

Crack–

“Kuhuuukk!”

There was no need to keep unrecording fingers.

Crackk–

“Kuuuaahk! Ahak!”

He killed the man.

Like that, he killed twelve with the Punisher being the only one alive. The Punisher looking like an old man with a white and long beard was sitting down on the same seat.

Step by step, Yu Jitae walked towards him.

“Let me say–”

He pierced the knife through the mouth, and rotated his wrist to kill him on the spot.

Despite everything that was happening, [Vintage Clock (EX)]’s true body that was the boss of all these beings was still neglecting Yu Jitae. For a transcendent authority, its subjects were nothing but parts of a machine. All that had to be done was find new components to replace the vanished ones.

Yu Jitae turned his feet, heading outside the Temple.

Oscar Brzenk was absentmindedly sitting down and could not even think about following him. Opening the doors of the Temple revealed a large garden of the interpreted world.

Covered in blood, he hurriedly carried his feet.

It was easy to reach the clock tower. 

In one jump, he reached the very top and broke the doors of the cuckoo with one strike.

He walked in. Inside, he saw the clone who was still crying on his knees. Even though he had already received the memories, verifying it with his own eyes in reality gave him a different feeling. 

Yu Jitae gazed down at the white bird resting in the clone’s arms.

The crying child looked up at him. Kneeling down, the child slowly raised the white bird towards him with both of his hands. Yu Jitae carefully took the bird, similarly, using two hands.

The moment it touched him, after finally fulfilling its objective, the white bird started to dissipate into conceptual fragments.

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)]’s ‘final words’ will be conveyed.>

Soon, a message appeared in his mind.

It just didn’t feel realistic and even Yu Jitae at this moment had no confidence in viewing the ‘final words’ of Vintage Clock. 

What’s with these ‘final’ words.

Their first encounter hazily came back.

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] is identifying the target…>

<Identification Complete!>

On a certain sleepless night,

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] greets you!>

That was the night Yu Jitae had earned his first friend.

<[Vintage Clock (EX)]:  o(⋆’▽’⋆)/☆°’>

When there is a beginning there is always an end. He knew a day like this would come one day, but hadn’t expected this day to be the one.

Yu Jitae closed his eyes. Those final words – he really didn’t want to hear them but… He dropped the lingering emotions in his heart as the Vintage Clock’s authority then resonated in his mind as a voice.

[It’s okay.]

Only two words.

Again, it was babbling some incomprehensible words.

What in the world is okay?

Nothing is okay…

A dreadful sense of emptiness came flooding in.

He stayed still not knowing how he was supposed to react. However, there were more following messages that woke him up.

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] discloses the completed records about [Hostility] and the [Great Hostility].>

Even though white bird was dead,

Life would continue as always…

And thus he had to take a look at the messages.

<Information about the [Last Night] will be revealed.>

Doubt appeared in his mind. In spite of what was happening, he still knew how to think. 

It was strange that information about the Last Night was being revealed first. The Third Night shouldn’t have even come yet so why would the Last Night…

That was when he came up with a hypothesis.

…What if the Third Night had already come?

***

“I will block them,” the Witch said to Bom.

It was after they had returned to the Association.

“You should hurry to the basement. I won’t be able to last more than a few minutes. In the meantime, you go open the door with the card key.”

The place Yu Jitae had been at for over a month, was quite surprisingly the underground isolation chamber. The one inside the isolation room would most probably be the black dragon. 

‘Myu’ was it…

What did Yu Jitae do with her for a month?

Fear sneaked into her heart.

Bom had to confirm it in order to not lose Yu Jitae.

She had found out about his recent actions from a Grade 4 assistant of Zhuge Haiyan, and took the keys after pressuring the director of isolation rooms, Thimithi.

Other agents were in a panic trying to deal with the SS- ranked dungeon. The time it would take for the dungeon to open completely and Clone 1 to make his way through the Witch was approximately three minutes.

3 minutes.

Bom quickly headed to the underground isolation chambers. There were initially some people trying to stop her but due to the emergency situation and Bom’s position on top of Thimithi’s card key, she easily passed through them.

At last after removing the agents and heading to the special isolation room by herself, she went through three layers of firm doors to finally enter the isolation chamber.

[Memorise (S)]

Just in case, she prepared the formula for the ballista spell which she had previously saved on her right hand. Blue lights of mana gathered into one before creating the outline of a large ballista.

That was Bom’s strongest weapon that could destroy an adult dragon’s head in one shot with just the pull of a trigger.

Bom pulled the door open.

On the floor was a large and black dog.

It was dead.

When she turned her head from the ominous feeling hitting her heart, she found a woman sitting on the ground leaning against the wall.

“It has been a while. We meet again.”

Myu added with a smile.

“Hello–”