A Precious Human Resource
I leaned my back against the utility pole, hugging my knees as I muttered,
"Leave me alone. I don't want to see your face."
"I get that, but I had no choice. You bolted straight out of Yuna's barrier, so I had to follow. If the other Valkyries spotted you first, they'd have reclaimed you on the spot. And if you keep sitting there like that, you'll catch a cold. Come back inside and cry properly."
Despite the sharp words, Ha-rin's hands and shoulders—holding the umbrella—were completely soaked.
The sight of her made a deep, seething anger rise from the pit of my chest.
"Whose fault is this? Who the hell put me in this situation? Why are you making that face? A cold? I hope you catch the flu and just die already!"
I lifted my head and shouted.
But Ha-rin only looked down at me for a long time with that same ice-cold expression she always wore.
"...You've already died once, yet you throw around the word 'die' so easily."
Ha-rin let out a quiet sigh.
"I didn't want to revive you as a Valkyrie either."
"Then you shouldn't have made me one! Why didn't you just let me stay dead?!"
"Who told you to follow me around? If I'd known you were going to die like that—if I was going to save you anyway—I would've prepared a male Einherjar unit in advance instead of a Valkyrie."
Ha-rin stopped speaking and stared steadily into my eyes.
"But that was the only unit I had on hand, and in that moment I made the best choice available to us."
"The best? How is this the best choice?!"
"I understand how you feel. But for Incarnations like us, death isn't as simple as you think. Even if you die, you'll eventually be reborn."
Ha-rin tilted the umbrella a little farther over my rain-soaked shoulder and continued.
"Think about it. Is there any guarantee that next time you'll be born as a human again, limbs intact, in a peaceful environment like this?"
Her firm words made me bite down hard on my lip.
"Then what am I supposed to do?! And what even am I? You said I don't have any powers!"
"Who said you don't have any? The fact that your soul settled into that Valkyrie unit without rejection is a power in itself. And more than anything else..."
Ha-rin gripped the umbrella handle so tightly her fingertips turned white.
An arrogant smile sat on her lips, yet somehow her eyes carried an unmistakable loneliness, as if she were forcing herself to look that way.
"In this world, the simple fact that you felt pure goodwill toward someone like me is more than enough qualification for you."
"What is that supposed to mean? My confession? Are you still trying to mock me even now? Please..."
"I'm not mocking you."
Ha-rin cut me off cleanly and gazed up at the rain falling from the sky.
"I—this existence called a Trickster—as long as I remain part of the system that makes up this world, receiving goodwill from others is designed to be extremely difficult."
"...What?"
A faint wetness clung to Ha-rin's voice.
"You won't understand even if I explain more right now, but I was born as a being who cannot receive love or affection from others."
Ha-rin drew a deep breath, as if the next words required real courage, and looked straight at me.
"And you are someone who felt goodwill toward a person like that."
"......"
I couldn't say a word.
"So to me, you are an extremely precious human resource. A rare, high-value asset that needs careful management."
"Is that supposed to be comforting?"
"Comfort? Hardly. I'm just stating facts."
Despite the blunt reply, Ha-rin held out her hand to me. It was small and pale, yet the fingertips trembled ever so slightly.
"I'll be honest."
Ha-rin spoke in a low voice.
"I talked about you being an ordinary person, but the truth is I didn't want to lose talent like yours so pointlessly."
"......"
"No. More precisely, I didn't want to lose you—the one who felt goodwill toward me."
Silence settled between us amid the sound of the rain.
"So I asked Jormungandr. I told her to use any method necessary to force you into that body."
The shift from "Yuna" to "Jormungandr" carried a strange, heavy pressure.
"Even if the entire world has forgotten you, Yuna, Nir, and I will never forget you."
That clumsy, matter-of-fact comfort dug mercilessly into my chest.
In the end, the sorrow I had been holding back burst free.
"I... I just wanted to live a normal life..."
I had wanted to study like everyone else, become a teacher or get a stable office job, meet a girl I liked and date her. Get married, have kids the ordinary way, eat well, live well, and slowly collect all the ordinary happinesses that everyone else seemed to get.
But that had become an impossible dream.
When I lowered my gaze and saw the soft, unfamiliar mounds of flesh pushing out against the rain-soaked hoodie clinging to my body, tears spilled over in a flood. It felt as if the me I had always known had vanished somewhere, leaving only a stranger I didn't recognize.
"If you listen carefully to what I say, I'll at least turn you back into a man."
"...What?"
Ha-rin looked down at me for a long time with a complicated expression before slowly opening her mouth.
"No matter what price I have to pay, I'll restore your original gender. There's a male Einherjar unit. I'll get it for you."
Ha-rin's voice was serious, leaving no room for argument. The moment she finished speaking, Nir burrowed into my arms and nuzzled his face against me.
"I like you, Noona. You saved me earlier. So now I'll save you too!"
Annoyingly, the warmth from that tiny body was so comforting that the injustice of having my entire twenty-year-old youth stolen from me erupted as full-blown sobbing.
I buried my face in Nir's white hair and poured out every bit of the sorrow and despair that had been coiled inside my chest.
By the time I finally managed to pull myself together several minutes later, the torrential rain had already stopped.
I slowly raised my head. With my face still a mess of tears and rainwater, I looked up at Ha-rin.
"Lee Ha-rin. What you just said—you have to keep that promise."
"...I will."
I wiped my face—smeared with tears, snot, and rain—on the loose sleeve of the hoodie and glared at her.
"You saved me. So take responsibility!"
I stood up and took a step toward her.
"And tell me everything you know. What this damn Causality is, what Incarnations are, what the System is. All of it!"
Ha-rin didn't answer, but I kept talking on my own, pounding my fist against my chest.
"And make it so I can use Authorities too. You said it yourself, didn't you? Once you're in this body, even if you're not an Incarnation, you awaken some kind of power!"
"...That's true. But Authority isn't a power you can just handle however you like."
"Then make it so I can handle it. You said if I listen well, you'll turn me back into a man, right? Then I'll become your combat asset, just like you want!"
When I pushed my wet hair back as I spoke, Ha-rin's eyes wavered slightly.
"If you said that lightly, you're going to regret it."
"Is there anything left for me to regret more than this?"
"There is. The place you're about to step into isn't something an ordinary mind can endure."
"...I'm not an ordinary human anymore either."
"You talk a good game. Fine. I'll make sure you pay a proper price for that arrogance, so try to hold out."
Nir glanced between us, then carefully took my hand.
It was small and warm.
"Lee Ha-rin. Let's hurry back to your hideout. We'll start over from there."
"You were running away so hard just a moment ago."
"I wasn't running away. My mental just broke for a second."
Ha-rin stared at me for a long while before letting out a small sigh.
"...How impressive, tofu mental."
Her tone was cold, but a very faint smile hung at the corner of her mouth.
"Noona, I'm hungry! Let's go eat already."
Nir's words seemed to lighten the atmosphere a little.
Then I tilted my head, realizing my own stomach felt strangely empty too.
"Why am I hungry? Didn't you say this was an android?"
"That body was designed to almost perfectly reproduce human senses. Once a soul is installed, it automatically converts into an organic lifeform," Ha-rin replied casually as she walked ahead.
"And basic physiological phenomena and the pain system are the same as a human's."
"Huh? What, so I can actually catch a cold?"
"A cold would be lucky. You can catch other diseases the same way."
Ha-rin scrunched her face as if trying to scare me, making some unreadable expression.
"According to the creator, only the basic physical capabilities and the way of existing to correct Causality are a little different from humans. And..."
Ha-rin hesitated for a moment, then added as if it were nothing,
"And it can even have babies, apparently."
"...Have babies? The guy who made this body is a pervert, right?"
"He just fulfilled the client's request a little too well."
At my short jab, a small laugh—"Pfft"—escaped between Ha-rin's lips for the first time.
"He was a pretty good guy."
Ha-rin's gaze drifted into empty space for a moment, carrying a distant, complicated atmosphere that words couldn't fully capture. Who on earth could make that ice princess look like that?
I was curious, but my own situation was more urgent, so I silently followed behind her.
And just like that, I arrived once more in front of the basement I had poured every ounce of strength into fleeing from only a short while ago.
The moment I opened the basement door and stepped inside, Yuna's completely unbothered voice greeted me.
"Oh, Sang-hae. You came back in one piece? I was worried you'd gotten stabbed by some other Incarnation in a corner somewhere, or just straight-up kidnapped."
"Stabbed?"
"Nir and Ha-rin chased after you right away. But you were so fast they completely lost you from the start, apparently? Looks like little Sang-hae still has no idea what kind of situation he's in."
Yuna propped her chin on one hand and gave a lazy, sweet smile.
Wasn't it more strange not to run after hearing that you'd been erased from the world and your existence had vanished?
But the words that snagged my attention were different ones that had come out of Yuna's mouth.
Die or get kidnapped?
What the hell was she talking about?
"I think I mentioned it, but that body of yours? It's insanely expensive and rare. And a Valkyrie who can't even control her own body properly is wandering around alone outside? I guarantee it—before long you'll get hunted down by other Incarnations after that body and die on the spot."
It was the kind of talk that the common sense and brain of an utterly ordinary college freshman simply could not handle.
"Most Incarnations have personalities and moral compasses that are twisted in very unique ways. There are plenty of guys who would catch a special case like you, turn you into a decorative taxidermy specimen, and display you in their living room."
"Is that because they reincarnate so often that their personalities break?"
"Hmm? They were originally like that. Unstable memories can make it a little worse, but Incarnations move according to their own purposes, so a lot of them don't care much about anything else."
Yuna kept smiling sweetly as she continued the cruel explanation.
"Especially the half-baked ones who've only recovered their memories but haven't awakened their Authority—those are the most dangerous. Those guys would do anything to forcibly yank your soul out of that Valkyrie and climb in themselves. Their eyes would roll back in their heads for it."
Goosebumps raced over my entire body, but I urgently pointed out the contradiction.
"Earlier you said if you force a soul out it turns into a vegetable! You said it couldn't be done—why is it different now?"
"When did I ever say it couldn't be done? I said it couldn't be done normally."
Yuna narrowed her eyes into seagull shapes like a cartoon character, clearly finding my panic entertaining.
"But if it's Incarnations who haven't awakened their Authority, they'll just rip the installed soul out no matter what happens to it."
Yuna smiled lazily.
"But we're not so heartless that we'd erase a soul just because we feel bad about wasting a Valkyrie~ Look. Ha-rin even lent you her own clothes, didn't she?"
"Ha-rin's clothes?"
My thoughts stopped cold for a second.
Without meaning to, I looked back and forth between the clothes on my body and Ha-rin.
It was true that my current body and Ha-rin's were similar in height and frame.
The baggy hoodie covering me left plenty of room at the waist and sleeves, so it was probably an oversized fit.
But the moment my gaze dropped even a little lower, the insane presence of that unfamiliar volume was something I still couldn't get used to no matter what.
On top of that, the rain-soaked fabric clinging to my chest was already mortifying enough, yet the pressure there was especially severe.
"Why is it only tight here?"
Ah, crap!
The question I should have kept inside slipped out unfiltered.
Crunch.
From the sofa came the ominous sound of something being crushed to powder.
When I carefully turned my head, Ha-rin was gripping the formless fragments of a Monami ballpoint pen, a vein standing out on her forehead.
"...At first I tried to put Yuna's clothes on you."
Her voice was a full two octaves lower than usual, a sinister tone that sounded like it had crawled up from hell.
"But her clothes were way too big and kept sliding off your shoulders. So I went out of my way to grab an oversized one of mine... and then your body was designed with a chest so stupidly bigger than mine that it just stretched tight—what was I supposed to do about that? You don't even know how to be grateful and you casually evaluate someone else's body size? You perverted stalker bastard!"
"Uh... sorry."
Ha-rin's voice kept rising, so I apologized without thinking.
Apparently I had stepped on a landmine I should never have touched.
But separate from the apology, my insides were in complete chaos.
The faint, sweet apricot scent that had lingered when I first opened my eyes—now washed away by the rain—had actually been this girl's body scent.
The fluttering lasted only a moment before a terrible question followed on its heels.
"...While I was unconscious, who put the clothes on this body? I was wearing underwear too......?"
When I asked carefully, Ha-rin flinched and crumpled the diary she was holding.
"Do you really want to know?"
"No, ignorance is probably bliss..."
If Ha-rin's ears turning slightly red meant she had personally changed my clothes, it would be so embarrassing I wouldn't be able to lift my head. Of course, if it was Yuna over there snickering who had done it, it would be a catastrophic disaster for my mental health.
"I've talked long enough, but to third-rate Incarnations who can't properly use the power of their past lives, that body is the ultimate item that makes them drool. If they can somehow tear your soul out and climb into it, they can forcibly awaken their past Authority."
Yuna took a step closer and poked my chest with a finger.
"If you run outside unprepared again and get your body stolen, or end up as some Incarnation's taxidermy collection piece—if that's little Sang-hae's preference, this unnie will accept it."
Yuna pushed her glasses up with a finger.
"I won't force you. Whether you get your body stolen, get taxidermied, or cooperate with us—the choice is free."
In this nightmarish coercion setup, a sucker like me never had any real options to begin with.
"...I'll cooperate."
When I nodded in resignation, Yuna's face lit up with a satisfied smile.
"First, let's go outside and measure your specs."
Carrying a laptop filled with mysterious numbers, Yuna led the way as we opened the basement door and stepped out.
We settled into the quiet alley in front of the empty house.
When she said "spec measurement," I had imagined the hardcore testing from American military movies, but in reality it was just Yuna giving instructions while looking at the laptop monitor while I moved around in the middle of the alley following them.
The problem started right from the beginning.
"You look like a newborn gazelle trying to run."
Even Yuna's teasing as I flopped onto the ground left me with no comeback.
Maybe it was because of Ha-rin's murderous stare from where she leaned against the alley utility pole, watching me like a hawk?
Because I was consciously trying to move my body, every single motion felt strangely dull and creaky.
It was like that awkward feeling when you suddenly become aware of your own breathing.
On top of that, the center of gravity was subtly shifted farther forward than usual, making everything even more unnatural.
Every time I took a slightly complicated step, my chest bounced around on its own and completely wrecked my balance.
And every time that happened, Yuna and Ha-rin's snickers stabbed into my heart like daggers.
After an hour of testing while swallowing my shame, the results were on the level of someone who had been injected with super-soldier serum.
Following Yuna's instructions, I lightly threw a punch at a thick concrete block abandoned in the corner of the alley.
KWAANG!
With a sound like a car crash, the concrete shattered like a cookie and flew in every direction.
Not a single speck of blood or dirt marred my smooth white fist.
The fact that the kind of superhuman strength I'd only ever seen in Hollywood action movies had just come out of my hand sent goosebumps racing over my whole body.
But Yuna recited the numbers from the monitor in a completely flat tone.
"Hundred-meter dash in the low sevens. Pure punch force two tons. Standing high jump two meters. You could casually carry a hundred-kilo appliance around."
I'd heard that Tyson's prime straight punch was a little over one ton. So this white, slender fist was putting out twice the destructive power of a world champion.
Did that even make sense?
While I was feeling the omnipotent high of becoming a Hollywood super-soldier, Yuna propped her chin on her hand and let out a long sigh.
"Hmm... by Incarnation standards, you're just a low-tier physical one-trick. How did such a shabby soul end up in that precious unit..."
"...Calling it a shabby soul is a bit much."
"Oh my? Sorry. I meant to say that inside my head and it just slipped out."
"What does 'low-tier' even mean?"
"Well, roughly speaking, the kind of small fry you send out as a time-waster? Or a meat shield for emergencies?"
At her words, the omnipotent high that had been inflating my head instantly cooled. Even if it was true, calling someone a meat shield to their face was a little harsh, wasn't it?
"When I ran away earlier you couldn't even catch me—isn't that evaluation way too harsh?"
I protested timidly, feeling like I was being unfairly dunked on, but Yuna just openly laughed at me.
"We could have caught you. But if Nir had gone full true form and chased you through the middle of Seoul in broad daylight, that would've been pretty fun, right?"
I had nothing to say to that.
True enough—even a regular wolf appearing on the street in the middle of the day would make the news, let alone a monster wolf.
"Still, according to what you said, if I hid and ambushed them I'd have a pretty good chance, right?"
"Wake up, Sang-hae. Incarnation battles aren't that easy. Plenty of them are immune to physical attacks or have reflect as a baseline, and even without Authority, none of them die from a few hits. You'll find out what kind of monsters they are soon enough by experiencing it with your body."
Yuna smiled slyly, as if she could see straight through me. Somehow it felt like all big sisters were born with a passive skill for reading their little siblings' minds.
"So tomorrow when you go to class, stick to Ha-rin like glue. Don't wander off and die a mysterious death where no one even hears you scream."
"Huh? Class? I'm going to school? In this body?"
My eyes went round at the unexpected word, and Ha-rin, lounging on the sofa, shot back as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"What, were you planning to live here forever?"
"No, that's not it! You said I was completely erased from the world, right? I don't even have a student record or enrollment certificate—am I supposed to audit classes or something?"
At my sharp counter, it was Yuna rather than Ha-rin who lightly tapped the laptop keyboard and answered with a lazy smile.
"This unnie may not look it, but she's a computer science slave... I mean, graduate student. Tweaking a school's administrative system a little is nothing for me! I've already roughly handled your school's admin system and network, so don't worry."
"'Roughly handled' is exactly what worries me the most..."
"It's fine. Won't get caught, won't get caught."
"...If it doesn't get caught, isn't that an even bigger problem?"
A mere graduate student cracking a Korean university's administrative network? Wasn't this the kind of security level that deserved a one-person protest in front of the Ministry of Education building?
Yuna's unnecessary competence left me speechless. In the end I turned my head toward Ha-rin.
"Ha-rin? Don't we have to worry about that Causality thing or whatever?"
"What does you going to school have to do with Causality? You're way too self-important."
Ha-rin sighed as if I were hopeless.
"Causality doesn't care much about ordinary things that don't cause big waves in the world. The fact that your smartphone, cash, and house door-lock password are still there is the same idea. From the world's perspective, they're just leftover scraps not even worth cleaning up."
"Leftover scraps? That's my entire fortune."
"You're surprisingly self-important, huh? Does the world have to care about your assets too?"
What the hell? They made such a big deal about mythology and all that, so why did the world system's work ethic feel as sloppy as a developing country's government office?
Thanks to that I still had my entire fortune, but the feeling was complicated.
Grrrgl.
I thought I heard a frog croaking nearby, but it was Nir, who had somehow woken up, clutching his stomach and staring at Yuna.
"Noonaaa, when are we eating? I'm hungry."
"Ah, I completely forgot with everything going on. Let's head back inside for now."
Yuna picked up her laptop and started walking back into the basement. As I stepped into the dark, damp entrance, I felt a strange sense of disconnect.
A quick glance around the messy basement interior showed the silver operating table where I had first opened my eyes, a rusty iron bunk bed, a worn-out sofa, mysterious monitors, and all sorts of unidentifiable equipment piled haphazardly in the corners.
The disconnect I felt came from the fact that this cluttered space and the idea of a meal simply did not connect.
"But why are we going back to the hideout instead of going home?"
"What hideout? This is home."
Ha-rin's completely confident answer left me speechless for a moment.
"Uh... why do you live in a dark basement like this?"
At my question, both Ha-rin and Yuna let out deep sighs.
"Sang-hae? Do you have any idea what Seoul real estate prices are these days? And college tuition on top of that."
"......"
"This unnie soaks her pillow with tears every time the student loan interest due date rolls around, wondering if it's karma from a past life."
For a second, the face of my own tyrant older sister—who used to roar like a lion every day in our living room while clutching the tuition bill—overlapped with Yuna's.
Mythological monsters and gods or not, in the end the reality of being a Korean college student was the same for everyone.
Then, suddenly, I remembered our house door-lock password.
The thought of four seemingly normal people crammed into this dark, narrow basement tasting the bitterness of capitalism made me feel oddly sentimental.
"Then how about we just go to my place? It's empty anyway."
The moment the suggestion left my mouth, the air in the basement froze.
Snap! Yuna folded her laptop at light speed and stuffed it into her backpack.
At the same time, Ha-rin snatched the nape of the dazed Nir and slung him over her shoulder in one smooth motion.
It was a perfectly coordinated sequence with zero wasted movement, like a scene from a crime movie.
"Great, let's move right now."
"Yay! Free rent!"
Capitalist madness glittered in both sisters' eyes.
A chill ran down my spine.
It felt like I'd had the entire fishing rod ripped out of my hands before I even got to cast the bait. Wait... was I the one who bit the bait in the first place...?
And so, on the first night after my existence had been erased from the world,
my house was completely occupied by the Incarnations of mythological apocalypse.