How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 74

Chapter 74

This Is Revenge for My Death

***

“Is there anyone here related to Eden? If you confess, I will offer a compromise.”

A relaxed stride and an easygoing attitude.

There were not many people of this type in the world.

Jacob’s lips twisted after he guessed Jin Geon’s identity.

“You, you’re a cop.”

“I’m not fond of that nickna.”

Whitney had already fallen outside his interest. If the Public Enforcent Corps had co here personally, it ant that anyone who needed to know about Eden already knew.

Jacob threw Whitney aside and imdiately cut his forearm with a combat knife.

Deeply, and long.

This was a kind of performance. Most people focused on the act itself and did not think about the future that would follow.

But what was this?

Before he could even swing his arm and scatter the drops of blood, the opponent had already retreated far away.

“What.”

The blood that flew belatedly only lted the unfortunate wall.

“Acid blood, is it acidic blood.”

It was a type of ability I was encountering for the first ti, but it posed no threat to Jin Geon. His intuition, which could be said to have reached the level of mastery, had already warned him in advance of the danger approaching him.

Moreover, after Ga-on captured a boy, circumstances had already been discovered showing that infected individuals were operating secretly in the underworld.

There was no rule saying it would not happen again this ti, so he did not relax his vigilance, and thorough preparation soon showed its results.

Of course, Jacob did not foolishly stand by and watch either. As the dense scars covering his body showed, he too was a warrior who had crossed countless lines of death.

The mont he recognized that Jin Geon was no ordinary opponent, he cut the opposite arm as well. In an instant, the number of passages through which acidic blood poured out increased from one to two.

Crossing both arms in an X, Jacob unleashed the condensed power toward the front.

At the sa ti, countless droplets of blood splashed out with a sharp sound and covered the small tunnel.

In an open space it might be different, but in a narrow place it was an extrely efficient move.

The blood droplets, each drawing irregular trajectories, were not sothing that could be calculated like ballistics. Even with the help of detection sensors or protective equipnt, it would be the sa.

But—

“Are you a Stage 2 infected? Well, it’s the ti when life feels the most enjoyable.”

Jin Geon walked forward without shrinking back. It was an extrely confident appearance, but to Whitney it looked like nothing but a suicidal act. So she closed her eyes and turned away, yet what was this?

Even after ti passed, no scream could be heard.

When she looked again, the distance had actually grown shorter.

“You…….”

Jacob growled quietly after realizing that this was not an ordinary Public Enforcent officer.

They were a group he had heard about endlessly since childhood. A special unit directly under the municipal governnt ford solely to capture ta-humans, the Ergency Disaster Response Unit.

“Doesn’t it make you feel special? Because you can display an ability that others could never use even if they died trying. And you can do it just by willing it. Maybe you even think the world revolves around you.”

But—

“It's all a misunderstanding. You are not humans but beasts. Drunk on the power given to you.”

“Are you trying to preach or sothing.”

“Of course not. I’m rely speaking about facts. You are a kind that cannot coexist with humans from the mont you are born.”

At the decisive tone, Jacob tilted his head crookedly.

Now that he thought about it, the ta-humans who had clashed with the Ergency Disaster Response Unit had all shown hostility. So intense that it could not be explained through logic or reason.

Back then, he had thought it was simply resistance against the ruling class that would not hesitate to mobilize public power to deal with irregulars.

But seeing it in person now, he understood.

The municipal governnt’s determination to kill ta-humans was beyond blind belief—it was close to fanaticism.

It was impossible not to hate them.

“Who are you to decide that? Do we not even look human to you?”

“You must be isolated—no, disposed of. Unfortunately, that is the answer.”

“Cut the bullshit.”

“Knowing the truth isn’t very pleasant, is it? Even if I didn’t reveal it, you should have realized at least this much yourselves.”

“Shut up!”

Jacob, driven into a frenzy, scattered blood around, but not a single drop touched Jin Geon. As if he already knew where it would splash, Jin Geon moved away before Jacob even swung his arms.

And that too, two beats earlier.

If a third party saw it, they might criticize Jacob for acting like a clown volunteering to entertain his opponent.

From Jacob’s perspective, it was enough to drive him insane.

Before the cause even occurred, the result was already decided.

An utterly unreasonable situation.

That was when Jin Geon drew his pistol.

The firearm he favored was the Dude from Fundantal Lock.

It was a product that combined gunpowder propulsion with magnetic acceleration, making it easy to carry while still maintaining strong firepower. Because of that, it had earned the nickna Buddy.

What distinguished it from other pistols was that it used a binary trigger, aning it fired both when the trigger was pulled and when it was released.

Because of that, it was easy to perform a double tap in any situation.

Just like this.

Bang, bang!

However, the two bullets did not pierce Jacob’s body and simply evaporated.

“Aim sowhere the blood can’t reach!”

Whitney, who had been hit earlier, shouted, and Jin Geon nodded.

“Ah, I see. Thank you for the advice.”

The mont Jin Geon imdiately adjusted his aim and the flesh of Jacob’s inner thigh tore apart happened almost simultaneously.

The bullet had barely grazed the skin as it passed by.

Naturally, this was not a coincidence.

Jin Geon had intended to cause bleeding. No matter how powerful the effect was, if the quantity was fixed, it was obvious that once it was consud it would be difficult to replenish.

And just as expected, the mont the magazine ran empty, Jacob dropped to his knees.

His battered skin spilled blood continuously like a broken faucet.

“Do you have anything more to show?”

“Ptoo!”

After asuring the distance between himself and Jin Geon, Jacob bit his tongue and spat out the blood pooled thickly in his mouth. A final move he had endured until the very end to unleash.

At that mont, Jin Geon reflexively extended his palm.

‘Got him!’

It seed the attempt to lure him into lowering his guard had worked.

Jacob waited with a pounding heart for Jin Geon’s hand to lt away, but reality betrayed his expectations. The thick blood simply slid quietly down the smooth skin.

“Why?”

“It seems there was a misunderstanding between us. The reason I kept avoiding it wasn’t because I was afraid or scared. I simply didn’t want to get dirty.”

“For such a trivial reason……”

Standing before Jacob, whose fighting spirit had vanished, Jin Geon calmly replaced the magazine and aid the muzzle at the center of his forehead.

Jacob suddenly lifted his head and t Jin Geon’s gaze, and his entire body seed to freeze.

The eye faintly visible between the eyelids.

What Jacob discovered inside it was—

“An artificial eye?”

The pupil spread out like a kaleidoscope. A pupil within a pupil, and within that pupil yet another pupil continued in succession. Its appearance was so bizarre that it was questionable whether it could even be called an eye.

It was truly a chillingly sophisticated Unit. Probably a product that had never been released anywhere.

Only then did Jacob understand why his defeat had been inevitable.

“Ah…”

“Goodbye.”

Bang!

***

Umbrella Tower stood 267 ters tall. In the modern era where construction technology had advanced, it was ordinary to the point of being unremarkable, but it was more than enough to represent an entire amusent park.

It was, in a way, natural that X, who had co for a preliminary inspection, chose this place as the stage. From there, the entire scenery of Eden Park could be seen at a glance.

Of course, now it could be called a mistake.

Being able to see everywhere also ant, in other words, that you could be seen from anywhere.

X turned his back on Ga-on and spoke.

“I’m sorry, but I have sothing I must do.”

“You an slaughtering people.”

At the blunt choice of words, X suddenly stopped walking.

“When a person becos consud by greed, they can never escape from it. They only commit greater wrongs. I rely dirtied my own hands for those who cannot sever their own doubts.”

“You an you rescued the sentient beings wandering without escaping their karma.”

It was a ridiculous excuse. Ga-on had t countless people over hundreds of years, but X was an exceptionally deranged lunatic even among them.

“This too is a virtuous deed. Only when proper sacrifice cos first can one finally beco a true enlightened one. If that ans I must wash my body in blood, I will gladly do so.”

“You’ve got quite the spirit of sacrifice.”

“You’re mistaken about one thing. Everyone I punish is…”

“I know. Serious criminals who wouldn’t be surprising if they died right now. I’ve dug pretty deeply into Eden myself.”

Ga-on laughed cheerfully and spread both arms.

“But the mont you killed , that kind of bullshit stopped working.”

“……”

X, who had been refuted with just two sentences, chose his words carefully.

“You kill anyone who gets in your way under the pretext of serving a greater cause, and you expect to believe your words are the truth? I’m sure I’m not the only innocent person who died because of you.”

“So you intend to punish as their representative?”

“This is revenge for my death. It doesn’t need causes or justice.”

Sensing that a clash was inevitable, X shrugged.

“As you can see, I’m in this kind of body. Does it really an anything?”

He was an Actor. Though it appeared he was here, in reality it was a full-body prosthetic. Even if it was destroyed, he would not die.

“Very much. The one who gives aning isn’t the one who falls, but the one who remains.”

Until eting X, Ga-on had been uncertain. Despite possessing outstanding skill, there had been no aningful information about him.

He had wondered if perhaps X was like Jin Geon, soone directly raised by the municipal governnt, a soldier treasured by the Mars Defense Force.

But after speaking with him, that did not seem to be the case.

His way of thinking itself was far removed from that of ordinary people.

“There’s sothing I want to ask. Where are you right now?”

“Do you think I’d tell you just because you asked?”

“Sowhere cut off from the world?”

“……”

X maintained his silence, but even that was an answer.

There was a high chance he had been forcibly conscripted.

There were many reasons for that.

First of all, the periods when he had been active were striking.

Thirty-nine years ago, twenty-eight years ago, sixteen years ago, and now. It was a pattern that could not appear unless there had been abnormalities in his circumstances.

Moreover, the thod itself was unusual.

‘An Actor.’

Having to drag around a tin can that beca scrap the mont communication was cut was a disadvantage, not an advantage.

No matter how much the Mars Defense Force advocated mysticism, this was on a pathological level.

Rather than simply not wanting to leave traces, it felt more like a desperate determination to deny X any freedom.

If he had no choice but to operate as an Actor, yet held a status that required constant surveillance?

There was no need to even ask.

‘Either a prisoner or a patient.’

It might even be so third condition beyond imagination, but Ga-on excluded that possibility.

Either way, it was certain that X could not contact Jin Geon, and that the Mars Defense Force would not listen to his words.

In other words, the perfect opponent.

It almost felt as if the heavens themselves had chosen him.

Thud.

Following the unusually strong wind blowing today, X’s raincoat fluttered. At that mont, the hood flipped back, revealing the front of a hologram helt.

“You seem to have quite a lot of curiosity.”

“You’re the one who killed . There’s no reason for not to be curious.”

“So in other words, you’re not satisfied with having died once.”