Episode 58
Arriving at the door of the last screening room at last, the two of us stood silently for a moment, not saying a word. Then, I grabbed the door handle, clearing my mind of the words she had just spoken, and opened the door to go inside.
“Huh…? Why is there nothing here?”
As she had said, there was no one inside the theater room. The empty seats, different from other places, made the interior feel desolate.
I was expecting something extraordinary because she was so worried…
Although it was different from what I had expected, I didn’t completely let my guard down. There was most likely something like the huge zombie I saw at the supermarket or the nurse zombie at the hospital here.
For now, following the advice she’d given before, I called out the shadow tigers to tear the screen first. As I was about to maneuver them, I saw a hand suddenly pop out from the screen behind her, trying to grab her.
“Behind you!”
“…!”
In an instant, her head was yanked backwards towards the screen as her hair was grabbed. Seeing this, I quickly moved the shadows, but she was faster than my movement. She reached back with her hand, grabbed the hand that had grabbed her hair, twisted the monster’s wrist, and turned her body towards the screen. Then, she swung a pipe forcefully, breaking the monster’s wrist, and the grip on her hair was released.
“Ow… my hair!”
Freed from the monster, she rubbed her head as if in pain and glared angrily at the screen.
“What I hate the most is someone grabbing my hair from behind, and you dare do that to me?!”
“Tear that screen apart right now!”
As if she was angered, the atmosphere around her became tense. I shouted to make her come to her senses, but it seemed she couldn’t hear me.
What the hell was that anyway? Why was there a hand coming out of the screen…
I looked at the part of the screen where the hand had popped out. On the screen, I saw a muscular monster holding its wrist in pain. It definitely had a human form, but upon closer inspection, it was slightly different. Its pupils were vertically slit, scales protruded from various parts of its body, and it had a tail at the back. It looked like a mix between a human and a reptile.
Was this a sci-fi fantasy movie…? But how did that monster’s hand come out of the screen?
Despite the question that baffled me, I felt it would be dangerous to stay here for too long. I hurriedly moved the shadows to tear the screen. Just as one of the tigers was about to leap high and claw at the screen…
“…”
A hand, larger and thicker than the one that had popped out earlier, emerged and grabbed the tiger’s neck. Soon after, the owner of that hand slowly stepped out of the screen. But that wasn’t all. Besides this monster, various other monsters began to appear from beyond the screen.
Was the reason she told me to tear the screen as soon as we went in this?!
The tiger, whose neck was caught by the monster’s hand, struggled painfully before dropping to the ground like a puppet with broken strings. The monster then threw the tiger aside and slowly looked around the room before our eyes met.
“Oh, shit…”
As soon as our eyes met, the monster charged at me like an angry bull. In a hurry, I created more shadow tigers to fight the monster, but they were knocked down and thrown across the room with a single swipe. Realizing this wouldn’t work, I thought of animals with stronger builds.
Large and strong animals? A bear? A gorilla? An elephant?
Racking my brain for the largest and strongest animals I could think of, I created them to fight the monster. When I had a small moment to spare during this, I looked for her. No matter how strong she was, I didn’t think she could handle such a monster alone.
“There’s always been cowardly bastards like that. During sparring, whenever the situation turned unfavorable for them, they would grab my hair first… You’re the same! So I cut it short, and now you’re doing this again?”
She was furiously swinging her pipe at the monster that had grabbed her hair earlier. Seeing that the fight was very clearly going in her favor, unlike what I’d thought, I decided I didn’t need to worry about her for now. I turned my attention back to the monsters fighting the shadows and looked beyond them at the screen. It seemed like I needed to get rid of whatever was sending these monsters out.
This time, I created a sharp-clawed bird and scattered it in the air. I controlled it to distract the monsters by touching them from above while tearing the screen in various places. At that moment, the image on the screen cut off with a “thud,” and shortly after, another movie began playing…
“Kwaaaak!”
“…Is this for real?”
The new image on the screen showed a vast plain, and soon, dinosaurs that had gone extinct tens of millions of years ago appeared. Among them, a slightly smaller but visibly vicious carnivorous dinosaur jumped out of the screen and into this side.
“This is no longer just zombies, is it…?”
The beast roared, and for a moment, my body froze. I was too dumbfounded to even close my mouth.
Ha… Was this why Noona told me to be so careful?
I barely managed to regain my composure and used my shadows to create more animals to fight the monsters. I had definitely overused my ability, and the backlash was starting to affect my body. Trying to maintain mental focus as best as I could, I endured and concentrated on intensively attacking the screen again.
Finally, the torn and disarrayed screen could no longer function. With only a few monsters left outside the screen, I thought it would be okay to leave them to her and the shadows. I turned my body and headed towards the projection room.
…Focus. You can’t collapse yet. You need to destroy the machine quickly.
Gathering my resolve, I arrived at the projection room, roughly opened the door, and entered to inspect the interior. There, I saw a zombie in tattered clothes with disheveled hair standing in front of the projector. Even though I had entered the room, the zombie didn’t spare me a single glance and only stared at the projector, bent over.
Thinking to quickly destroy the machine and kill that zombie while it wasn’t paying attention, I moved the shadows. However, just as the shadow tiger’s claws were about to touch the machine, the zombie turned its head and looked at that side. The tiger then stopped and returned to my side.
What the…?
Startled by the tiger’s sudden change in position, I quickly released a few eagles above and created more tigers below to attack the zombie simultaneously. However, just like before, a simple movement from the zombies sent the shadows back to their original positions.
“…”
The zombie twisted its body to look at me directly, slowly straightening its bent waist, and raised its head to reveal its face hidden by its hair.
‘…Eyes?’
There was a large eye in the center of its face, occupying most of its facial area, staring at me. The moment our eyes met, it wasn’t just the shadows that became unable to move — the same happened to me. In an instant, the zombie’s eye blinked, and as it opened again, the shadows that had been somewhat near the zombie slowly started to move backward. It was as if someone had pressed the rewind button. I could only watch as the shadows returned to my control.
Wondering how to counter that eye, the zombie, which I thought could only attack using its eyes, suddenly moved forward and swung its fist at me. I quickly dodged to the side, but…
Thud! In an instant, my body was in front of the zombie’s hand, allowing its attack to land on me. I let out a short groan and corrected my posture. Gritting my teeth, I grabbed a nearby chair and charged forward. However, the zombie that had been in front of me instantly moved behind me, and the chair I’d brandished cut through the empty air.
‘What the…!’
I was confused about what the hell was happening, and kept getting attacked and pushed back. I exhaled, holding the place where I had been hit.
‘Can it manipulate time? Rewinding or fast-forwarding it…?’
If that was true, then this zombie was definitely not an easy opponent. Even if I dodged its attacks by moving my body, if the zombie could rewind time and move me back to my original position, I would still get hit. Conversely, if I charged at the zombie to attack, and it fast-forwarded time, my attack would miss.
Moreover, because of that zombie’s eye, my movements kept stuttering and hesitating.
‘Damn it! At this rate, I’ll be the one to fall before I can even kill it…’
Gritting my teeth, I tried to withstand the zombie’s attacks. Just as I was about to give up, the door burst open, and she stormed in. Thanks to her, I was able to snap out of my thoughts.
She entered, panting and holding a blood-stained pipe. Seeing the zombie, she didn’t hesitate for even a moment and charged forward, swinging the pipe. The zombie’s gaze, which had been on me, shifted to her.
“What the…! Why am I here…?”
Just like me, she was startled when her body was moved against her will, causing her posture to falter. Seizing the opportunity, the zombie tried to punch her, but I was faster.
While the zombie was distracted by her, I regained control of my body. I moved the shadows to destroy the projector. The zombie, which had been about to punch her, froze and turned into stone.
“Huh… huh? It suddenly stopped…?”
Puzzled by the zombie’s changed appearance, she raised the pipe in her hand high and brought it down. As soon as the pipe made contact, the zombie’s body crumbled and quickly turned to dust and disappeared. As I stared in awe at the scene, I noticed a small orange gem drop to the ground where the zombie had been.
‘…That’s…’
I was sure I had seen something similar to it before. After eliminating the huge monster at the supermarket, something reddish had sparkled there. And now that I thought about it, at the hospital too, something green had briefly sparkled under the chair where the nurse zombie had fallen… I didn’t know what these things were or their purpose, but since she had quietly collected them, I didn’t feel the need to question them first. After all, my plan was to observe her behavior.
However, seeing this directly made me change my mind a little. I slowly picked up the gem from the floor and thought, let’s test her with this one more time.
