"It'll be over soon, this place too."
"Well, there's not much left anyway. Doesn't it feel liberating?"
Hong Ye-seong stretched his arms wide with a yawn. Instead of answering, Sa-young pulled a crumpled cigarette pack from his coat pocket. Only two sticks remained. It was one of Cha Eui-jae's belongings.
'Would a man in such poor health really have wanted to smoke this badly?'
Clicking his tongue softly, Sa-young put one between his lips and asked the figure walking ahead of him
"Preparations?"
"Of course they're done. Who do you take me for?"
Hong Ye-seong gestured for him to follow, striding cheerfully toward a deserted, overgrown path. Beyond the brush stood a decayed warehouse, weathered by sea winds, long abandoned.
"Let's see if it stayed put...."
Creak
The door moaned heavily as it opened. Despite its shabby exterior, the interior was reinforced with massive iron bars running floor to ceiling. Sa-young stepped slowly into the dimness.
Clang, clang.
Chains rattled violently. A guttural scraping sound echoed, like a throat being torn raw. Sa-young tilted his head.
"Turn on the lights. It's not like it'll know the difference."
"You're right! One sec."
A harsh glow filled the room. Behind the bars, a monstrous beast sniffed the air. Sa-young observed it quietly. A blind, four-legged creature, its enormous jaws tightly bound with pitch-black chains.
It shook and slammed its head again and again, but the bindings held fast. From between its clenched teeth, threads of white saliva dripped.
Hong Ye-seong spoke with a mocking laugh.
"Ordinary muzzles were useless. Good thing that bureaucrat left us these chains."
"Can it be unbound?"
"Well~ I wouldn't recommend it. If it's freed, it'll chew right through the bars. You know how it is. People, buildings, doesn't matter."
"Not that it matters."
Sa-young rubbed his lips. A cold smile touched his drowsy face.
"It's going to devour us anyway."
***
After Sa-young's silhouette vanished, Cha Eui-jae was hurled into an unfamiliar void. It resembled what he had seen when opening the Memorial Dungeon. Dark, silent, utterly empty.
Yet strangely, there was no fear. It felt… comfortable. As if he had arrived where he was meant to be. Eui-jae curled up, his eyes growing heavy, his mind fogging.
'Staying like this wouldn't be so bad....'
'No, what nonsense!' He shook his head fiercely. He couldn't just die trapped in some unknown emptiness. Surely Ga-eul would pull him out, probably. But still...
'I can't just wait forever.'
Cross-legged, he sat in the void, rubbing his chin. The only thing he could do here was think.
The attempt to glean hints from Lee Sa-young's memories had failed; something unknown had forcibly cast him out. Then what about his own memories? Eui-jae had once faced the apocalypse. Perhaps in the subconscious he couldn't recall, a clue still remained....
Suddenly, he felt a gentle ripple, as though waves rocked his body. Eui-jae opened his eyes. Voices murmured on his right. Without hesitation, he swam—if not walked—toward the sound.
When he reached its source, the emptiness began to reconstruct itself. Dingy walls rose, cluttered junk scattered into place, and the smells of baked clay and tough jerky filled the air.
..."Cha Eui-jae" chewed dried jerky with difficulty. Monster meat, hardened to the point his jaw ached. Hong Ye-seong's workshop was even messier than he remembered, its owner's hair grown long and ragged. He looked like a wreck. Muttering to himself, Ye-seong paced the workshop.
"Revenge, yeah, it's great. Getting payback, love it. All of it, good. I'm rooting for you, friend. But still...."
"..."
"How the hell do we reach the White Hole? We can't build a ladder up there, and planes or helicopters would get shot down instantly. A spaceship?"
"For the record, drones were shot down too many times to count."
"Which is why I didn't even list them as candidates!"
Ye-seong snapped back shrilly. "Eui-jae" raised his hands in surrender. Deciding to rewind time after confronting the Root of the Apocalypse had been fine in theory. The real problem was this. How to strike an enemy that floated beyond reach.
With a frustrated growl, Ye-seong clawed through his hair, then muttered under his breath.
"No, calm down, Hong Ye-seong. You can do this. You're the greatest genius alive.... Start from the beginning. The order of the apocalypse.... The first to appear were the big-mouthed monsters...."
"Right."
Eui-jae nodded. Ye-seong swept everything off his desk with a loud crash, white dust rising, then began carving directly into the wood with a chisel.
"You'll ruin the desk."
"Shut it, friend."
Jagged letters appeared:
[Stage 1 of Apocalypse: Emergence of Big-Mouthed Monsters → Disappearance without trace]
"They appeared suddenly and vanished just as suddenly.... What was their purpose? It's not like they were appetizers sent ahead."
Eui-jae rose to his side, twirling the chisel in calloused fingers. Ye-seong muttered in thought.
"They devour without knowing what they're eating. That's their instinct. But why do such monsters exist? Isn't it too stupid?"
"Why else… made just to kill everything."
"No, they could've made more sophisticated monsters right away, like the ones we see now. Then the world would've ended instantly."
"Those are just humans turned into monsters. There's a limit. Guess stupid ones are cost-efficient."
Ye-seong shot him a look of pure exasperation.
"God, you're the worst debate partner."
"Coming from you, that stings."
After a few exchanged punches, Hong Ye-seong, panting, leaned back over the desk.
"Not everything in life has a reason, but the system's rules are different. Everything has a reason. There must be a reason those things were the very first at the dawn of the apocalypse...."
A reason. Eui-jae crossed his arms, eyes flicking. Something clicked.
"Doctor once dissected one. Said its stomach was empty."
"...Empty?"
"Yeah. No organs, no humans or rubble inside. The stomach was pure darkness. Like another dimension.... Why?"
"...Why are you only saying this now!"
Ye-seong grabbed Eui-jae by the shoulders, shaking him violently. Eui-jae, baffled, stammered.
"What? Why? Is this important?"
"Of course it is, you idiot! The void! You said void!"
Golden patterns flared in Hong Ye-seong's eyes, spinning rapidly. He released Eui-jae, staggering around the workshop.
"Yes... that's it. Their mouths are a kind of portal. Everything they swallow passes through their mouth and gut into another space entirely!"
"...Huh?"
"They don't need eyes. They just gulp down everything indiscriminately. That way they can analyze the building blocks of this world.... Exactly! They were advance scouts, surveyors!"
Ye-seong flung his arms skyward, shining like a soccer player who had scored the winning goal. Eui-jae popped another piece of jerky into his mouth and asked
"Great epiphany, but can you explain it in a way I'll actually get? Stop celebrating alone."
"Fine, I'll dumb it down. That's the mark of a good teacher."
With a smug grin, Ye-seong carved an image into the desk. A monster with no eyes and a massive mouth, the so-called Big Mouth.
"If one of these swallows you, you might end up right at the Root of the Apocalypse!"
"..."
"So? Want to get eaten right now?"
A long silence.
Puzzled, Ye-seong frowned.
"Why aren't you reacting? This is a huge discovery! If monsters had Nobel Prizes, this would win one."
Instead of replying, Eui-jae grabbed him by the collar.
"So this is how you repay me, you bastard?!"
"Uwaaaaagh!" Ye-seong's screams and Eui-jae's shouts faded into the distance.
And at the same time, Cha Eui-jae opened his eyes.