Chapter 91 – Masquerade Party (5)

Noon. 12:05 o’clock briefing start.

“Alright, prop team, stage team! Have you completed preparations!”

“The prop team has no issues!”

“The stage team is still working on bullet marks in Zone C!”

“We don’t have much time left, so I’ll allow the use of live ammunition! Use silencers, and finish it in under 5 minutes!”

Seeing that the Jack guy was nowhere to be seen, he must have left after finishing his messenger role.

“Ah, actors! Over here! You can come this way if you’re ready!”

In the middle of all of the chaos was a scruffy-looking man shouting into a megaphone like a director on a movie set.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Sanggook Lee, the director in charge of this act!”

The man enthusiastically greeted them and held out his hand. When Gyosu’s group just coldly stared at him without taking his hand, he sheepishly retracted his arm back.

“Hahah, pardon me. I must have been bothering everyone when you all were supposed to be getting into the roles, with the play starting in a minute and all. You were the resistance army role that’s supposed to save Old Picture, who’s the hostage, correct? That cold and rigid attitude… It’s perfect! You’re professionals! To think that I have the privilege to plan a play that will be written in history with such amazing actors, the honor is all mine!”

‘This guy, I don’t think he knows anything.’

He was considering and acting everyone as an enemy after hearing what Jack said, but looking at this director’s reaction, it actually seemed like all he was thinking about was the play with Old Picture.

Tap tap.

[Rear / Three / Flank / Two / Armed]

Vex informed me and Ian of the surroundings using the signals we used in Area 45.

‘Three in the back, and two on each side. Seven… and that’s just the ones visible, so there are probably more monitoring us from places where we can’t see them. They aren’t watching over just us, but all of the people that are spread out here. Then the director and most of the staff team are probably normal citizens.’

That did make sense. If they were going to trick Old Picture’s keen eyes, then they needed to be way over the average skill level, and even if the Executive Department is a collection of the most talented people in the Dome, they probably don’t have that many people who have a talent for stage settings and scripts.

“I see. A play that will be written in history, you say… I actually didn’t really hear much about the details; can you tell me exactly what’s such a big deal about this?”

“Hahahah! The news must spread slower outside. This is all that the people in the Dome have been talking about. This is going to be the official occasion that brings that massive monster, Area 47’s celebrity, under the Dome’s control! It will be a huge help in pushing away those Raptor murderers and rebuilding the old civilization! I have said my whole life that the bud of culture will bloom to heal the hearts of the people in despair, even within this land of blood! And since I, Sanggook Lee, am the one to take the first step, this couldn’t be more—”

The director answered his question immediately without hesitation. Ignoring the man who had, at some point, turned the conversation into compliments about himself, Gyosu concentrated on understanding the current situation.

‘So that’s how the news spread in the Dome.’

It looked like the higher-ups at the Dome revealed only a part—the good part—of the information about this project. If this play succeeds, then Old Picture will be under the rule of humanity. Then the Dome will become stronger than ever! Or something along those lines.

‘Well, it has been a few years since they trapped Old Picture in the central area of Area 47. The Dome did do everything to block the press at the time, so there are probably not that many people left that know what actually happened. No, it’s probably right to say that even the ones that know are keeping quiet to avoid those serpents of a human.’

Since most of the pods used in the Dome were duplicate products of the actual Gedroits Company pods, it wouldn’t be unusual for them to have planted a back door in order to control the news. The people that are smart enough to know what actually happened should have understood the meaning behind the Dome’s propaganda, so they’re probably pretending as if they don’t know anything.

‘A well-controlled group of people that receive only filtered information about the outside and are separated from the logic of the Wastelands. That’s the reality of the Dome.’

People who have sacrificed freedom and intelligence for the sake of ‘peace’ in this crazy world. That was the reality for the majority of the citizens who lived as a gear part of the Dome’s system.

In the end, that meant that the people here, including the director and the prop and stage teams, didn’t know that the monster coming their way was a crazy monster that killed hundreds of people.

“20 minutes until the rendezvous!”

“Ah! I’m sorry! I’ve held you up for too long! Here’s the script!”

“Script? We have 20 minutes to memorize all of this?”

“It’s more of a description of a situation than an actual script! All you have to do is act out the situation in the script. Alright? You all are professionals! I know you guys can do it!”

Wink!

The director shot a happy wink at the group.

Gyosu had a serious internal debate about whether or not he should shove his fist against the man’s filthy bearded chin.

‘Did I think it all wrong? Are they spies from the Executive Department directed to kill us? They dragged us here all of the sudden to act out a war, and they expect us to ad-lib the entire play without giving us a single line? Is this guy actually a director?’

It was one of the two. Either this Lee something guy who’s supposed to be a director was an idiot. Or they prepared something extensively beforehand so that everything will work out if they buy time in front of Old Picture. The Dome guys couldn’t be that much of an idiot, and looking at the piles of empty cement bags and tools, it was most likely the latter.

“Excuse me… Director Lee?”

“Yes?”

“I would still like a short explanation of everything. Even if we are professionals, we still need to know how everything is going to progress.”

“Mmm, it is all in the script, but alright. The communication between the actor and director is, after all, an important part of a great movie!”

The director, Sanggook Lee, maintained his bright attitude as he opened the script.

“Now then, I’ll start the explanation! Act 1, [The Encounter]!”

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#1. The Encounter.

Characters: Hepburn, Vex, Ian

(Noon. Bright lighting. The three resistance members are running on stage. Hiding from the enemy inside a narrow alleyway, they meet refugees that are not aware of the current situation.)

“Hah, hah! Vex, how many minutes left?”

“Four! Hepburn, we still have some time left, why are we running?”

“You guys aren’t as good at acting as I am. It’s better to be actually panting a little than pretending awkwardly. Past the destroyed convenience store into the third alleyway, one, two… it’s here.”

Ssshhhk!

While taking a moment to collect their breath after arriving at the alley in the script, they looked at the large fleshy monster with shoes for scales in the distance.

“I’ll explain it one last time. First, Old Picture was born from a memory that doesn’t even know it died. Not even the Dome figured out the exact cause of death, but they presume it’s death from shock. It has the habit of collecting shoes, and it’ll be fine if it’s not broken out from its illusion, but if something goes wrong, throw your shoes at it. It’ll chop your foot off with the shoe if you don’t. Ian, you lost a shoe when you guys ran away, right?”

“Hm? Ahh, that reminds me, one of my shoes slipped off while I was kicking off the tentacles that were sticking onto the Buggy.”

“You were lucky. The monster has a tendency to stop and check the new shoe it collected. That was probably how you bought the time to throw the bomb and destroy the building.”

“If that shoe didn’t come off…”

“That squishy flesh of his can harden when it needs to, so it could have either sucked in the entire car like submerging it in cement or swung its hardened tentacles to break off your entire leg and take just the shoes.”

Schlt… schlt…

Ziiiiiiiiiiing—!

“Arrgh! What exactly is this ringing sound?”

“Close your eyes and concentrate on the headache.”

“H-Hepburn! I saw a little bit of… something! And then it faded away!”

“You’re right. The psycho-wave that Old Picture sends out is a memory of the host.”

[I saw it too. It was a man holding his son’s hands with his wife walking past a convenience store. It looked just like an analog picture from reality.]

‘Yeah. That’s the reason why it got the name Old Picture.’

Gyosu didn’t concentrate, but he vaguely knew the picture. It’s probably the memory of the host, walking past the convenience store with his family like always.

Schlt… schlt…

Old Picture was now about two blocks away from them.

“There, the three mannequins hanging in front of the guy’s main body. Do you see them?”

“Uh… wait. Those mannequins, it’s like the ones from the monsters…”

“Memory. It’s a gift from the Investigation Bureau back when they tied up the guy to this place. The host of Old Picture is a being who is living in order to complete the memory of him, his wife, and his son walking down this street. Those dolls are an embodiment of the core of the memory: the host, wife, and son. Physically, the guy’s actual body is that mass of flesh and shoes, but what it cares the most about are those three mannequins.”

“Wait. If those mannequins were gifted by the Dome… then what did it use before? Old Picture must have existed in this Area before the Dome tamed it, right? Since according to what you said, its duty is to walk around this place.”

“Yeah. Before they made this model garden, it was incredibly aggressive. It used humans instead of dolls.”

He definitely has a keen eye for these things. There’s still quite a distance between them, and the image the psycho-wave shows them can only be seen for a short instant, but he already figured it out.

“Humans?”

“Yeah. When it found someone that looked similar to the people in the memory, it immediately kidnapped them, dislocated all of their joints, and walked through this street with them until the person died. And when they died and rotted away, it threw away the person since they no longer looked like the people in the image, so they searched for new dolls. It was basically a walking disaster, but thankfully Area 47 was in a pretty messy state during those days, so you could find fresh corpses lying around here and there. The Investigation Bureau matched the timing of the guy throwing away the corpses and throwing in the dolls to put an end to the merciless killing.”

When he first came to Area 47, his mother had shown him Old Picture’s territory, and it was what one would have imagined hell would look like. Flesh and film connected and pulled together the collapsed building debris, and the monster’s body transformed the street destroyed by the war into a living, breathing entity. Looking at the [GX 25] convenience store sign made with tendons beating to the monster’s heartbeat, he couldn’t help but puke.

When he told them a short description of the monster’s form before the restoration, the two men who had been attempting to maintain a straight expression crumpled their faces up.

“So you’re telling me that we’re supposed to put on a clown show in front of a guy like that?”

“Well… yeah?”

“Keheheheh, amazing. Hey, can I smoke a quick cigarette?”

“Probably? You have that macho character vibe from war movies. Actually, smoking fits better with your image. You can smoke, and wear those sunglasses you always like to wear.”

“I thought we were supposed to act like fleeing soldiers? Won’t that be a little awkward?”

“Old Picture’s host was a civilian. It’s probably more used to characters from movies and such. Just keep one thing in mind—don’t ever get scared of it or act harshly toward it. As long as you don’t touch the guy’s dolls, you can act aggressively, too. Act like soldiers that met a civilian dumb enough to be taking a walk in a warzone.”

Although it looked like a monster, the man in Old Picture’s memories was just an average man, so getting scared and shrinking away only broke its illusion and made it lose control.

“But if we’re supposed to act according to its memories, shouldn’t we trigger it right away since we’re not in its memory?”

“Seeing that the others in Area 47 walked past this place, I don’t think it remembers everything down to the smallest detail. A human’s brain has a tendency to edit their memories in a way they want to. And since these are vague memories of a dead person, I think it understands as long as some parts match up.”

“Even a war situation that it’s never experienced?”

“…That’s why I said ‘I think.’ I’m not sure either.”

This was also the part I was the most concerned about. A stranger walking by him and his family? Of course, it can happen. It’s not like you can know the faces of every person who walks past you.

But if there’s a person walking by with a gun? That’s out of place. But as long as they persuade it, then it still lets them go. There was a post on the Community that said they made it past the thing in their Wasteland clothes by claiming it was cosplay. If Ian and Vex talked their way out of it when it gained interest in their Buggy, they could have passed through the situation.

But a warzone—completely wrecks the origin of the memory. He honestly couldn’t guarantee that the monster’s consciousness would be able to understand and accept this.

‘It should work out somehow. Its memories can’t be detailed. No, it probably can’t remember much other than what it was doing consciously. If the last memory I saw back in the last play is true. If that’s true…’

Ziiiiiiiing—

“Aghh! Oy, Gyosu! I saw it too! There are three people sitting at the table in front of the convenience store!”

“It’s starting! Remember! Act rough like real soldiers, but make sure the dolls don’t get hurt!”

Schlt… schlt…

Clack clack clack clack.

It was the sound of some massive squishy mass moving its body and the sound of light footsteps. This was the position where the guy’s dolls were walking towards the convenience store like always.

This was the starting point of the play.

Gulp.

“Hey, I’m going in. Make sure you pretend you’re covering me!”

“Leave it to us!”

“Damn it. It’s the first time I’ve been this nervous holding a gun with just blanks!”

P-p-patter!

Gyosu ran out of the alleyway with a nervous expression, sharply glanced around the area, and pretended to be surprised after looking at Old Picture’s mannequins.

“Wait….. civilians? Hey! What are you guys doing here?”

Ziiiiing— Tziiiiiiing—!

“Argh!”

Old Picture’s psycho-waves suddenly shot into their heads, the image of a man in a military uniform being written over the image of the family walking towards the convenience store! That thing will burst if I mess it up here!

[Who… are you? Is this some sort of training?]

The mannequin of the middle-aged man looked around questioningly while its mouth bobbed up and down.

‘Good! It submerged into the situation! From now on, we have to make sure that the guy doesn’t ever think the situation doesn’t make sense!’

And in order to do that, Gyosu just blabbering off wasn’t going to cut it.

So when Gyosu looked up to the sky and signaled with his eyes, Vex quickly raised his watch from the alleyway.

ZzzZ— zZzzzZt—

Suddenly, a broadcast rang out from somewhere and spread its sound throughout the entire street.

[ Attention. This is the Ministry of Public Safety and Security, the Civil Defense Alert Control Center. We are issuing an air raid warning. At the current time, an air raid warning has been announced across the entire country. This is not a drill. ]

Waaaaaaeeeeeeaaang—! Eaaaaaaaaaannng—!

This wasn’t a siren they normally heard from a police car, but an actual siren that one may have heard during a disaster evacuation drill that added on a realistic element. And he could see the Old Picture’s main body and its mannequins wave visibly in reaction to the announcement.

=====

12:30 o’clock.

#2 Civilians and resistance forces isolated in the midst of battle

(The sharp sounds of sirens as well as bombs ring out in the air. The main character drags the civilian family out of the chaos.)

=====

‘It’s impossible to plant a new memory. Since the memory itself is the main body. We need to fill in the gaps, the small details within the memory, to create the situation! No matter what, we can’t leave the range of the base memory!’

Siren. Army uniform. It was a well-built setting, but none of it came from its memories. They first needed to return the situation to the guy’s normal range.

– Pewwwwww!

[ We ask for theaters, gyms, terminals, malls, and other places with many people to immediately evacuate the people somewhere safe. ]

Banggggggg!

‘Nice timing!’

And just at the right time, a mortar fell on the building next to them and showered debris on them.

“Damn it! Hey, you over there! Get under the table! You’ll get hit by the debris!”

Gyosu roughly grabbed the woman mannequin and the little mannequin and pulled them under the table.

“What are you doing? Stop dawdling!”

Pmhp!

After pushing the two mannequins under the table, Gyosu spread the parasol over them.

[Uh, uh….]

The hesitating mannequin of the man walked toward the table and wrapped his arms around the other two dolls, and at the same time, he saw the main body of Old Picture calm down as well.

‘That’s one obstacle we’re over. Since what’s left of its memory is just walking through the street with its family, we just need to maintain the main actions and input the new situations.’

The first checkpoint, ‘Sit and rest at the table in front of the convenience store.’, clear!

When Gyosu signaled to Ian and Vex, who were waiting in the alleyway, with their experience in special forces proving itself, the two rushed out quickly and took cover behind a flower bed near the convenience store and watched guard.

[What’s exactly happening? This sudden warning—is there a war going on?]

[H-honey!]

[Wahhh! Daddy! I’m scared!]

Three different voices—one of a man, one of a woman, and one of a child—came out of Old Picture’s mouth. It was proof that the monster was completely immersed in the situation and started to fill in the empty gaps in his memory.

“Damn it. Stupid civilians. Were you living under a rock? Didn’t you see the news?”

[N…ews?]

“Yeah, the news! It’s been going crazy since yesterday! Those North Koreans actually sent the nukes! It’s a total warzone out here!”

To Gyosu’s response, Old Picture’s massive body shrank back.

[That does remind me… there were rumors about a weird illness spreading….]

‘That’s the host’s memory. It’s piecing together the pieces to match the situation.’

“Cap! We don’t have time! We’ll get surrounded by the enemy if we don’t get to the escape point in time!”

“I know! Oy, civilians, you heard that. I don’t have the time to be listening to your whining. If you want to live, follow us.”

[W-where are we going?]

Gyosu pointed at the street to answer Old Picture’s question. The road that it always took.

“We’re going there. We’ll cover, so you take care of your family over there. Make sure you don’t lose them.”

(The main character shakes their hand with the head of the family. A small trust towards the soldiers and the determination to protect his family bloom in the man’s mind.)

Remembering the information in the script, Gyosu stretched out his hand.

“The name’s Hepburn, Sargent Hepburn.”

[Sargent… Hepburn?]

Old Picture suddenly froze at Gyosu’s introduction.

‘Yikes! A plot hole! I should have just said Gyosu Park!’

Gyosu tensed his muscles to run. If the words [That doesn’t make sense] came out of his mouth, then he’ll run, run away as fast as he can, maybe he could start to turn around right…

After momentarily gurgling, Old Picture calmed down on its own, and the mannequin took the hand Gyosu extended.

[Well, over 70% of the citizens in the country are foreigners, so there must have been a change in the army as well. I’m Dojin Kim, and this is my wife and son. Please take good care of us.]

Sweating internally, Gyosu mustered up his most trustworthy-looking smile.

“We’ll need to help each other. If we want to survive.”

The play had only just started, but Gyosu already felt like crying.