Chapter 19
Chapter 19
After entering the underground passage.
The zombies went crazy.
They charged like berserkers.
They didn't care about their own bodies at all.
They bit each other.
At the same time.
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
...
As if they had been waiting.
The notification windows popped up like crazy.
"These zombies are giving an unusually large amount of EXP."
Did they age in the underground or something?
In a space where the stench of rot pierced the nose, level-ups continued explosively.
And.
In an instant.
[Level 15 Reached!]
[A new region is opening.]
[Select 1: Lumien, Alker]
No need to think about it.
There was only one thing I needed right now.
"Alker."
[Opening the Alker Gallery]
└[9th Grade Sage] : What is this. A new singularity!? Have I finally awakened the Eye of the Sage!
└[Houmun Cloth] : Foolish human. As if that would happen.
└[To Mix or Not to Mix That is the Question] : I want to mix it with my chemicals.
└[Alchemist of Copper] : I happened to be experimenting with copper. Is this made of copper?
"Hmm...."
It was strange.
Among all the galleries I've accessed so far, this one was by far the most bizarre.
From the very first comments, everyone was flying off in different directions.
But.
I have to say hello.
[Nice to meet you, it's the Gallery Owner]
└[9th Grade Sage] : Hoho! A Gallery Owner. Are you the master of this thing called a gallery!
└[Houmun Cloth] : What components are you made of? If given the chance, I'd like to analyze you?
└[To Mix or Not to Mix That is the Question] : Oh Gallery Owner. Please choose one of the substances to mix, Erten? Archon?
└[Alchemist of Copper] : Equivalent exchange! Gallery Owner! What did you sacrifice for this gallery!
"Wow."
Everyone was just talking about themselves.
Marching Necromancer was right. These guys were madmen through and through.
Suddenly, I remembered the comments I got when I asked about alchemists.
└[Marching Necromancer] : Alchemists aren't something a sane person does. Weirdos become alchemists.
└[Necro-aspirant] : Some crazy guy turned my underwear into gold and put it on display last time!
└[Corpse Researcher] : I'm mild. There are guys there even worse than the Machine Enthusiast, I'm telling you!
└[No. 20] : Alchemist.... scary. Empty eyes are terrifying.....
"So they're the craziest of the crazy...."
Necromancers are also called crazy by other mages.
But if you get called crazy by those necromancers.
"Aren't they just mentally unstable?"
Well, it's still the early days of the gallery.
Let's start with what's urgent.
[I want to implant a machine into my body. But I can't have any physical damage. Is there a way?]
└[9th Grade Sage] : Hoho! Interesting. Implanting a machine into the body..... Have you thought about the opposite, implanting the body into a machine?
└[Houmun Cloth] : That seems easy enough? You just need one skill.
└[To Mix or Not to Mix That is the Question] : Hoho! Mixing machine and body! Experiment on my body immediately!
└[Alchemist of Copper] : Gallery Owner. Disappointing. Don't use machines, you should put in copper.
"Okay, Houmun Cloth it is."
It bothered me that he was talking like he was the only one who knew, but I sent a whisper anyway.
[Are you for real?]
└[Houmun Cloth] : Yeah, you just need one skill. It's called Dimensional Application.
└[Gallery Owner] : How does it work?
└[Houmun Cloth] : So, you send your original body to another dimension, and then perform the implant in that space. Easy, right?
Honestly, I have no idea what he's talking about.
But it means I can do it, right?
"Shop."
I opened the shop window immediately.
"Found it."
[Name] : Dimensional Application
[Category] : Skill
[Required Ether] : 10 million Ether.
"Oooooh!"
The price is reasonable too.
No need to think about it.
I bought it immediately.
"How do I use it?"
I called out one of the zombies that was waiting to use as a test subject.
"Gueeeh...."
I tried using the skill on the zombie standing there blankly.
[This skill can only be used on your own body parts or your thralls.]
"Ah..."
It was blocked with a warning message.
The entity moving with a zombie chip was not my thrall.
"Corpse Control."
After bringing it under my command with the skill, I tried again.
I applied the skill to the zombie's arm.
Then.
"Huh?"
The arm disappeared in an instant.
It wasn't severed either.
It just, vanished.
As if it had never been there in the first place.
At the same time.
[Select the item to paste.]
"Ah, so that's how it is."
The concept itself was simple.
Cut off a body part into another dimension.
Paste what you want into that empty space.
No pain, no traces.
"This way, I can restore it anytime."
It's a good skill.
The implant problem is solved with this too.
But.
Suddenly.
"There's something..... I want to do?"
The zombie's arm was empty.
If so, what could I put in here?
"For now..... shall I try attaching this steel beam?"
I pasted a steel beam that was rolling around on the floor.
Then.
"Gueeeh...."
The zombie couldn't handle the weight of its own arm and sat down on the spot.
The arm with the steel beam attached scraped the floor and trembled.
"Hmm.... it has its pros and cons."
Heavy things won't work.
I should use something light.
Anyway.
"Shall I head back now?"
I got everything I needed.
I retrieved the zombie chips from the zombies.
As soon as the chips were removed, the zombies collapsed on the spot like dolls with cut strings.
"Nice."
The Cost problem can also be solved with chips.
I just need to put high-grade zombies into the Cost.
I turned my feet toward the outside of the underground passage.
Returning home, I sat in front of my desk and took a slow deep breath.
"Whew.... it'll really work, right?"
On the desk lay an eyeball.
It had a texture somewhere between glass and metal. Transparent, cold, and strangely looked like a real eyeball.
It was an object that made me feel uncomfortable if I stared at it, as if it were looking back at me.
But I'll have to get used to it.
Because it's going to be my eye!
[Name] : Nemesis Prosthetic Eye Implant
[Category] : Body Modification
[Functions] : 1. Tactical Vision Mode
2. Heat Detection / Bio-scan
3. Distance & Ballistic Calculation
The prosthetic eye I had seen.
I ended up buying it after all.
"It's my entire fortune, but..... I think it'll be worth it."
I touched it lightly with my fingertips.
It's cold.
Colder than I thought.
Putting this into my eye....
After touching it a few times,
I made up my mind.
"Dimensional Application."
As soon as I used the skill.
My right eyeball disappeared.
"Ugh!"
I was startled for a moment, but there was no pain.
If anything, that was even weirder.
My eye was gone, yet I felt nothing.
My right field of vision went pitch black.
Complete darkness with no light, no outlines, nothing.
[Pasting Nemesis Prosthetic Eye]
There was a sensation of something entering.
The feeling of something cold settling somewhere inside.
A sensation I couldn't tell if it was a foreign object or pressure flashed by.
[Pasting chip]
The brain implant chip I had bought earlier.
I needed it because I had to connect the brain and the eyeball.
And at that moment.
—Implant complete.
—User recognized.
—HUD activated.
—Vision synchronization complete.
My right vision returned.
And very clearly at that.
Objects were as clear as if I were looking through a high-end camera.
"Wow!"
Furthermore.
It wasn't just about seeing.
Translucent data overlapped at the edges of my vision.
Temperature, distance, object information.
The ordinary room turned into a tactical screen in an instant.
"Wow, what is this?"
There were too many things I could do just by thinking.
"100x zoom."
Things far away were pulled in.
I could even see the cracks in the outer wall of the building outside the window clearly.
"Analyze that."
—Analysis in progress.
—It is a 15-year-old vase.
"Huh...."
I felt a sense of futility.
They say this isn't a very expensive prosthetic eye in the cyberpunk world.
I was excited and stopped by the gallery to brag.
└[Sandebiseutan] : Why are you making a fuss over a cheap prosthetic eye?
└[Doctor Repair] : That's what third-rate mercenaries used. It's weak.
└[T] : Nemesis Prosthetic Eye? What's that? Never heard of that implant.
└[Nova] : Analyzing..... Analysis result: Pushover.....
"No, then how good is a top-tier prosthetic eye?"
Does it fire beams or something?
But now I can't buy it even if I want to.
"Ether is 0...."
I felt like I had to collect it like crazy.
I finished the implant and stepped outside.
But.
Kang Tae-san, Kang Ju-ah, and even Lee Su-ah.
The three of them were watching a video with serious faces.
"Come here."
Lee Su-ah gestured with a frown.
"What is it?"
"The Shelter Manager is making an emergency announcement."
"...Really?"
Shelter Manager. It's rare for someone in that position to step forward personally.
Unless it's a really serious situation.
'That's strange?'
I stood next to them and started watching the broadcast.
—Greetings, Shelter residents.
On the screen was a woman who looked like she had just entered her 40s.
Her expression was heavy, as if she were making a national apology.
—I... had one truth I was hiding from you all. That is... Sejong Shelter was actually a corpse incinerator.
My expression twisted.
"What is she talking about?"
"....I don't know."
The others were the same.
—The large-scale zombie outbreak that occurred in Seoul. At first, our Sejong Shelter was in charge of disposing of those zombie corpses. We buried all those corpses underground.
"Ah...."
Now I understood.
The reason why zombies were constantly coming out of the underground passage.
—But we shouldn't have done that.
Her tone changed.
It was heavy, serious, and the voice of someone who had made up their mind about something.
—Millions of corpses were buried. But that's not the end. A mutation has occurred.