Chapter 9
Chapter 9
2. Reconstructing the Incident -1
I witnessed a human being fall in love with a generator.
Team Leader Park, who had recently been living with chronic dry eye from working in an office with no lights, was gazing at the magic power generator I'd brought back with desperate eyes, overcome with emotion.
"Hunter Noah Won. Wh-where in the world did you get something like this......?"
"How is it?"
"It's an insane piece of equipment. The rated output fluctuates around 16kW, and the fuel it needs is very easy to obtain. If hunters feed magic power into it...... or if you toss in the byproducts left over from killing monsters and run it, it works beautifully!"
"......You're saying it runs if you put those plant bastards in?"
"Yes!"
Whirrrrrrr──
The magic power generator beyond the glass window was pumping out electricity. I could see people tossing lump-like remains left behind by the dead plant bastards into the intake. For the first time in a while, the whole building was bright.
Team Leader Park excitedly explained that if the power that thing produced was added to our supply, our electricity situation would improve dramatically.
"Everyone will be able to work under bright lighting for four more hours a day! Haha, ha......"
"........"
"Haa......"
Team Leader Park's joy soon turned into a sigh.
Electricity.
For us—with no engineers or specialists, the big power plants completely overrun by the plant bastards and unusable, not enough people, and intact buildings made scarce by the long civil war—our only option had been solar power.
We'd scraped together solar panels bit by bit from apartments and public facilities, concentrated them in one place, and generated power that way. Even that was a tight amount once we poured it into the plant interception system.
And...... the power station we'd painstakingly kept running had been completely blown apart by that colossal son of a bitch that showed up last time. So a magic power generator at this timing was like rain after a drought.
But. Look.
From what I'd looked into before—back when society and the state were intact, the amount of electricity Korea Electric Power Corporation produced was around 550 billion kWh per year.
And this magic power generator's annual output was roughly 120,000 kWh. The gap was so vast you'd have to go five decimal places past 0.0 just to compare them.
We were clutching breadcrumbs and celebrating.
Even now, the land being encroached upon by the monsters was expanding moment by moment. The liveliness that had once shone in people's eyes was fading. And the monster invasion wasn't over yet. It continued.
A Gate would open once again somewhere in Earth's empty sky, and all sorts of plant monsters would pour down from beyond it. Then, if we were unlucky and something like the EX-grade Monster we'd experienced last time appeared, it would truly be over.
There was no hope.
I couldn't even bring myself to think things would get better. All that remained for us was to slowly die. This despair...... was probably why Team Leader Park sighed.
"........"
Minsik and I were still the only ones who knew about the lifeline called the "System."
Because I hadn't even taken the first step with the Status Window yet. I'd only just finished the Tutorial, and I was in debt, so I couldn't even use the Shop. Which meant I couldn't hand out food and generators to them.
Even I was half-skeptical. Could using this System really let me save Seoul? Could I defeat the plant bastards and return Earth to its former brilliance?
But.
This man, Team Leader Park—he used to smile a lot. Even in the photos taken when he was deployed—everyone else might have been making sour faces, but he alone was smiling. When I'd once asked him why:
'If I at least smile, I find strength...... and besides, won't other people draw strength from seeing that? That's why I smile.'
That was the answer I'd gotten.
And it was true in practice. When getting through dangerous crises, he was the kind of person who forced a smile and told the people around him that if they just held on a little longer, they'd see the light.
So I didn't like seeing his forced smile crumble.
I knew that some hopes could turn into despair. Disappointment hurt most when it followed hope. Still, I felt like throwing at least a single spark to him.
"Team Leader Park."
"......Ah, I'm sorry. Hunter Noah Won. I showed a bit of an ugly side. At the very least, I shouldn't show this side of myself in front of Hunter Noah Won......"
"Do you know what an otherworld is?"
"......Excuse me?"
I had no intention of telling him the whole truth. The story that I'd been thrown into the savanna of the Status Window and had to figure things out on my own wasn't exactly hopeful.
So I'd only tell him one side of it.
"I've obtained the ability to travel to other worlds. There was a zombie apocalypse world, a medieval fantasy, and from what I saw, there's also a place where three-meter humanoid robots walk on two legs."
"Uh......"
"I'm not crazy, Team Leader Park. Think about it. When plant bastards are opening Gates and attacking us, it's not that strange...... and besides, where do you think I got the magic power generator?"
"........!!"
Team Leader Park's eyes darted as his thoughts raced. And once that train of thought reached the conclusion that I wasn't the kind of person to make empty jokes or banter about a topic like this—yes.
Light began to return to his hollow eyes. That was what I'd wanted to see.
I grinned and patted Team Leader Park on the shoulder.
"I didn't have any money, so I couldn't buy a robot. Still, getting a generator on the first trade run wasn't bad, was it? From what I saw, they were selling food at very cheap prices too. If I get the chance later, that part as well......"
"......Hunter Noah Won, what did you give them in exchange for this generator?"
"Huh?"
But it seemed the light had returned a little too much.
"Tell me more specifically, Hunter Won. What did they look like, what was their culture like? Could you communicate? What's their aesthetic sense like? And what do they use as currency—"
"No, uh, well."
"This is no time for that. Let me go get a notebook, a recorder, and a pen. Don't go anywhere—wait right here!"
"........"
Crash-bang!
Team Leader Park bolted from his seat and ran out. I was left alone with a dumbfounded expression, just blinking. Then it belatedly came to me. Team Leader Park had been a business administration major.
He came back a little while later and wrung every bit of information about people from other worlds out of me (not that I simply "gave him information"—it genuinely felt like he'd wrung me dry).
A few days later, he held out a tape to me and said:
"......Team Leader, what is this?"
"Didn't you film a movie back when Hunter Noah Won was an idol? It was a hit. This is a tape with that footage on it."
I shot to my feet, goosebumps rising.
"No, why would you bring up that dark history......?!"
"Sell it. Trade requires goods to exchange, doesn't it?"
"Excuse me?!"
"It's the kind of movie that coasts on pretty faces and doesn't care much about story, so it'll work well enough on people from other worlds and cultures. And given our situation, if we have to sell something, I think media that costs us nothing is the best option."
No.
"Th-then let's do something else instead. There are plenty of good classic movies. Like Tazza."
"I don't have it stored."
"Then why do you have that goddamn thing?"
"I kept it for promotional purposes. Isn't Hunter Noah Won effectively leading Seoul? So as video material for the newly born children......"
No!
"Please, Team Leader. If you keep coming at me like this, I'll have no choice but to respond with a strike—"
........
In the end, I took it. That goddamn tape.
He said to use it for bartering later.
"Puhahahahahaha—!"
"Don't laugh, you bastard."
In front of a ruined convenience store, that bastard Minsik burst out laughing loud enough to shake the clouds. I could only glare at him with a face like I'd chewed shit.
"Wow, Team Leader Park told you to sell that? To otherworld people? That—the one where you're wearing the vinyl t-shirt? He's a re-al piece of work with no blood or tears. How can a person be like that?"
"Shut up!"
"I didn't get it even when that was blowing up in Korea, but if it lands in another world too, aren't you going to be a universal superstar? Round and round you go, and you're doing idol work again, Noah Won. Huh?"
"This is your last warning, Kim Minsik. If you bring up that topic again, be prepared to pay the appropriate price."
At my stern warning, Minsik snickered like he was having the time of his life. He's the kind of guy who, once he gets a hold of something, teases for ages, and if it were up to me, I'd avoid his face for a whole day.
[-> Download Slot 1: 『Bullseye』 (Downloading...... 45%)]
But like it or not, I had to stick by his side to download that bastard's ability.
Kim Minsik's 『Bullseye』 is an ability with no tangible form, like a buff. Lightning or flames can be received with the body to speed up the download, but 『Bullseye』 isn't like that. Getting hit by an arrow carrying 『Bullseye』 doesn't make the download go any faster.
Which meant I'd be stuck loitering around him for the next half day.
"Still, Team Leader Park isn't wrong. If Shop transactions are blocked, you've got no choice but to barter with other hunters to get what you need. Right?"
"So why does the bartering have to be with this...... Hey, I warned you."
"This isn't teasing, it's work talk. Look, it's not like we can sell precious metals or equipment. And you said Shop-made weapons look way better than the weapons from our world, right? So seriously. We should aim for that angle."
"........"
It gives me a headache because he's not wrong.
If only Earth had something uniquely outstanding, but our magic-related technology is inferior and our science isn't that advanced either. So we have no choice but to try making deals with cultural content.
Or, simply, just do mercenary work.
"Stage list."
[D-rank Stage List (Abbreviated)]
[Dungeon | 3 days | Designated Target Hunt | 100 Credits + D-rank Random Box]
[Restoration | 1 day | Terminal Reinstallation | 500 Credits]
[General | - days | Reinforcement Request | 300 Credits + D-rank Random Box]
[Dungeon | 2 days | Designated Zone Purification | 300 Credits + D-rank Random Box]
[........]
Even if I ran these, my Credits would still be in the negative. The harvest was effectively just the random box series attached to them. And as for whether those boxes were some incredible opportunity—
[General | (Hunter1) | Does anyone know what can come out of a D-rank Random Box?]
: I keep getting weapons from the boxes, and I'm curious whether I'm lucky or not.
└ Stop bragging
└ ffs the admin disappears and now there's no moderation for flexing either
└ Statistically, about 9 out of 10 times you get junk. Things like magic power generators or food boxes. The remaining 1 out of 10 gives equipment, and someone claimed they got a unique weapon, but I don't know if it's true.
Seeing posts like this pop up regularly, the boxes seemed pretty underwhelming. Of course, from my position, they were desperately needed. With the Shop unusable, those boxes would become my supply source for survival goods for Seoul.
But what if I spent three days clearing a Stage and the box didn't give me what I needed? What if I got unlucky and a greatsword or something dropped at that 1-in-10 chance?
So I needed a supply source that could reliably provide goods. That was why I was seriously considering trade between hunters.
But I couldn't let my situation be discovered during the trade process.
"Right, exactly. A food box was 1 Credit, wasn't it? If they find out you can't use the Shop, there'll definitely be some bastard who tries to gouge you by demanding 10 Credits' worth of goods for one box."
"Right. I'll need to fabricate a plausible reason for why I have to barter."
"Or just make a friend and take it easy."
A friend, huh.
Right. If there was a trustworthy hunter who could cooperate closely with me and purchase supplies from the Shop on my behalf—the problem would be cleanly solved.
That was why I'd worked on building goodwill with Sohye to the very end in the Tutorial.
I'd put her in the party even though her combat power was lacking, and covered for her when trouble started. Having done her that much of a favor, negotiations should go fairly smoothly.
But not yet. The relationship hadn't ripened yet.
Humans are fundamentally self-centered creatures. And Sohye is from a zombie apocalypse world, no less. Living in such a barren and dangerous environment naturally makes people selfish and vicious.
So proposing cooperation after building a somewhat stronger, more solid relationship of trust with Sohye would be the safest long-term approach.
After hearing about the Tutorial and various other things, plus my supply procurement plan, Minsik narrowed his eyes and said:
"But you know. Taking care of Seoul is fine, but in the long run it's a bad move. That...... they said it's D-rank there, right? If you stay at that level for a thousand years, you'll just end up swallowed by the plant bastards and dead. Without even paying off your debt."
"......I know, dumbass. That's why I'm looking for ways to get stronger without going through the Shop."
"What I'm saying is, change your priorities. Your growth comes first, and getting generators and whatever else for the people of Seoul comes second. You know how tenacious Koreans are. We'll manage to hold out somehow."
"........"
I was about to add something, but I shut my mouth. Minsik was right. Saving the starving and destitute people of Seoul was good, but...... in the end, I had to get stronger to crawl out of this pit.
Because monsters were falling somewhere on Earth even at this very moment.
"You said there are lots of people from other worlds. You're sociable. Try learning martial arts from people like that. If they're from a fantasy world, wouldn't they use swordsmanship and magic like in novels?"
Hearing that, the first thing that came to mind was that crazy spear-wielding lunatic.
Considering he'd singled me out going on about a hero's teachings or whatever, he'd probably teach me his spear techniques or something...... No, no matter what, that bastard is a bit much.
But learning and mastering techniques from other worlds was definitely a good idea. Skills stolen with [Download -2] were nothing more than one-time, single-use abilities, but techniques learned with the body would remain permanently.
For someone like me who couldn't use the Shop, it was effectively the only way to grow.
Minsik patted my shoulder and said:
"Noah, you've got pretty good luck with people. You'll probably find a decent mentor. If you can, make it a woman."
"......If I had luck with people, would I have met a pyramid scheme and that crazy spear lunatic in the Tutorial? And how do you explain the agency president bastard?"
"You've got luck with people and luck with enemies."
"Luck with enemies, my......"
"Ack!"
It was such ridiculous nonsense that I smacked him.
That night. A message came from Sohye.
I was just on the verge of falling asleep, so I thought—does this person have no day or night? Or maybe there's a time difference between here and there—as I checked the contents. And the contents were......
[Kim Sohye : Noah]
[Kim Sohye : I think I found a Hidden Piece]
........?
I bolted upright.
I immediately kicked off the blanket and got out of bed.