When They Act Like Scum
The day after the festival celebrating the harvest of the Day-Night Wheat.
The gate raid finished early today.
The people of Samira and the folks from the Hope Bunker exchanged farewells.
“Great work out there!”
“Thanks for all your hard work!”
This gate had been cleared by Awakened from both camps. It was a yellow-rank open gate near Seoul Station, and it had a massive entry capacity of eight people.
The entry limit didn’t necessarily correlate with the gate’s difficulty, but it could influence it indirectly. That was the nature of open gates—if one gate allowed many people in, the capacity of other gates would decrease. When considering the danger posed by people passing through other gates, it was always better to have more of my own people around.
“Lee Hyun-nim. The distribution of supplies is complete.”
The sorting of the gate byproducts was finished. Park Yun-seong approached to report. He was a college student who had been with us since the Muha-dong days. His innate skill was tracking the location of objects, and he’d once been misunderstood for peeping into the women’s restroom because of Do Jieun.
“Right, let’s head back.”
We returned to Samira’s territory. Everyone’s steps were light at the thought of eating dinner at home. We arrived at Samira before long, and after exchanging greetings with the others, I headed to my house.
“Welcome back.”
As I climbed the stairs, Do Jieun greeted me. She had passed the test safely and joined my direct staff. Her position was Soul Stone Manager; I had granted her administrative access to my Soul Stone.
“Nothing out of the ordinary?”
“No. Oh, the sisters have returned home.”
Do Jieun used her Gate Search skill to monitor Samira’s territory and check the Square. For her work, I had moved the Soul Stone to the end of the hallway and partitioned off a large space to build an office. Half of the sixth-floor hallway had become her office, and I’d set up a desk near my front door to serve as a secretariat. The secretariat was an open-plan structure, while the inner area where the Soul Stone was located was walled off into a room.
“And here are the visitor logs and reports.”
People regarded Do Jieun as my secretary because she occupied a spot right in front of my front door. That was the intention. So, Do Jieun served as both the Soul Stone Manager and my personal secretary and guard. While truly important reports were handled through meetings, these days I mostly grasped Samira’s affairs through reports. Thanks to that, meeting times had decreased, and the executive staff also found it convenient to deliver reports through her.
“You organized this well.”
“Ah… yes. Thank you.”
I walked into the secretariat naturally and looked around. It was clear that Do Jieun had put a lot of effort into decorating and organizing it. It smelled nice, and there were many cute little trinkets. I also checked the room inside. My Soul Stone was in the corner, and on the wall was a map Do Jieun was in the middle of drafting. It wasn’t a detailed map, but rather a tool for her to record special notes while using Gate Search. It was made entirely by her own hand, and surprisingly, it was easy to read.
“You worked hard. You’ve already done this much.”
“Hehe, yes. It’s almost all in my head now.”
At my praise, Do Jieun chattered away excitedly. She asked for permission regarding the frequency of using Gate Search in the future and mentioned that the mana consumption would decrease.
“Oh, could you sit for a moment? I wrote an observation log.”
“Were there any anomalies?”
“No. I didn’t see any, but I thought I should just in case.”
Do Jieun pulled a notebook from her drawer. I had only told her to focus on ‘changes,’ but it was far more systematic than I had expected.
“I’ll look at it in the office after dinner. My clothes are dirty right now.”
“Ah, yes! Then, may I go have dinner and come back?”
Do Jieun was twenty-one. She said she had never worked a job before, but she seemed to have a good head for work. She moved well, adjusting to me on her own.
“Sure. You don’t need to ask for permission for things like that in the future. Just make sure you keep to the Gate Search schedule.”
“Yes, understood!”
Do Jieun’s voice rose in pitch, delighted by even a small compliment. My first impression had been that she looked a bit cunning and not particularly great, but she seemed to have a somewhat simple side to her.
I had returned home, but it wasn’t time to rest. After washing up and eating dinner, I went straight to the office. Aside from the reports Do Jieun had kept for me, there were approval documents delivered through Bom Noona. These were the truly important ones.
Knock, knock.
“Yes.”
Do Jieun entered, holding the report she had written. I had glossed over it earlier, but now I saw that her clothes looked a bit uncomfortable. She was wearing a suit and even heels. I had never said anything about the dress code; she had chosen to wear it like that on her own.
‘I’m in a tank top and shorts….’
I put down the documents I was looking at and examined the file she handed over. She had created a format of her own. ‘As expected of an art student.’ I didn’t know if it was related to her major, but it was just pretty to look at. Her rounded handwriting was also easy to read. Jangsu-ajusshi’s handwriting sometimes made me annoyed while reading.
“You did a beautiful job. Oh, set the time like this.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
Do Jieun had prepared diligently for several days. I gave her some moderate praise and returned the file, but she just stood there.
“Aren’t you leaving for the day?”
“Yes? Ah, would you like a cup of tea? This time, what was it… using the principle of mana heating… that… um.”
Do Jieun, who had been speaking in a polite posture with her hands clasped, began to fidget with one hand when she couldn’t think of the word she wanted to say. I knew what she wanted to say.
“Induction.”
“Yes? Ah!”
Jangsu-ajusshi’s direct development team had developed an induction stove. Of course, it wasn’t the induction stove we used in the past. The energy source was different, and the detailed operating principles were different. Anyway, since its primary use was the same as an induction stove, I intended to just call it an induction stove.
“The Chief brought the induction stove earlier. It’s for Lee Hyun-nim’s house and the office. Ah, he said the distribution to each kitchen is finished, too.”
I had heard about it from Bom Noona during dinner. Do Jieun had been keeping the induction stove intended for my office.
“Keep that in the secretariat and use it. I have no use for it.”
“Yes?”
“It’s hot. I don’t really drink hot tea anyway.”
The induction stove was a truly groundbreaking invention. Until now, the indoor temperature of buildings rose because we had to light fires to cook. The person cooking had to endure a painful time in front of the fire. The induction stove developed this time didn’t leak heat into the surroundings. As long as there were enough mana stones, one didn’t have to endure the pain of lighting a fire in the summer.
‘Seolhee-ssi really loved it.’
The induction stove wasn’t just for the kitchen. It could be used in the bathroom, too. I didn’t need hot water, but Seolhee-ssi had to go through a very cumbersome process every time she washed Hyerin. Thanks to the induction stove, that cumbersome process had largely disappeared.
“Ah, no. If the secretariat needs one, I’ll buy it with my own money later…”
“It’s fine. Keep it in the secretariat and use it.”
“No… uh… yes. Thank you. I’ll use it well!”
Do Jieun tried to decline again, but after seeing my face, she bowed deeply.
“Nothing else to say?”
“Yes….”
“You worked hard. Go and rest.”
Do Jieun bowed and left. Through Target Detection, I could feel her heading to her office. Just as I was reviewing Samira’s backlog after sending Do Jieun away, a familiar energy signature climbed to the sixth floor. That energy paused briefly in front of Do Jieun before approaching my office directly.
“Come in.”
Tap—
The door opened before the knock was finished.
“Hyung-nim!”
Jang Hoseop appeared. “No, you see… ah, the gate was fine today, right?”
“Yeah. Speak.”
“Yes. Some crazy bastard left a comment…”
Jang Hoseop immediately launched into the story. He had posted several things on the Square. The harvested Day-Night Wheat and the slaughtered Big-Ma meat. The food prepared for the festival. Even the various types of mana lamps shining brightly. The posts he uploaded included these photos; in short, it was an explicit brag post.
“At first, it caught the mood just as I intended, right?”
“Yeah.”
People were naturally envious. They guessed Samira’s potential by looking at not just the food in the photos, but the organized tables, chairs, and tableware.
“But the number of people cursing us kept increasing.”
“They’re cursing?”
“Yes. They’re telling us not to post things like this. Asking if we’re doing this to provoke others.”
I didn’t understand why Jang Hoseop had come to find me so excited. I had expected that much.
“Just ignore it. We just need to lure people in, right?”
“No, simply cursing is fine, right? But they’re nitpicking about strange things.”
Jang Hoseop mentioned a few comments. Saying the ingredients in some soup looked insufficient. Saying we manipulated the limited supplies to make them look abundant.
“Some guy said he didn’t like the tablecloth.”
“Hahaha. Really? Just ignore things like that, too.”
“Yes… that’s what I should do, but I’m a little triggered. Because they’re talking like we’re running some kind of scam…”
Jang Hoseop vented his frustration and calmed his heart. It seemed he had even gotten into a war of words with several people. But the real problem was elsewhere.
“Um, Hyung-nim.”
“Yeah.”
“But one post is a bit ambiguous.”
“Why?”
“‘Samira is in Seoul. If you harvested at this time, it’s winter wheat, but the appearance is different’… something like that.”
There was someone analyzing the photos in detail this time, too. It wasn’t the first time.
“And?”
“That person requested information disclosure.”
The person Jang Hoseop was talking about was convinced that we had harvested special wheat using unconventional methods.
“They seemed to have recognized the Big-Ma meat, too. Asking how we ate meat that shouldn’t be edible…”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. They wrote the post with the argument that at least information related to food should be released for the greater good… and that post is getting a huge response.”
It was a post that pointed directly at Samira. Jang Hoseop had come to ask how to respond to that post.
“In my opinion… if we answer incorrectly, it will hit our image.”
“I see. Understood. Let me think about it.”
“Yes? Ah, should I just leave it for now?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t matter.”
I dismissed it as trivial. “Just do as you were doing. Don’t answer anything that’s troublesome.”
“Yes. Understood.”
And from that day on, strange things began to happen.
Today, I went out to resolve a rescue request. Once again, my partner was Gi Eun-chae.
“Do we only need to visit three places?”
“Yes.”
Gi Eun-chae showed me her notebook.
“We went here last time, didn’t we? There were quite a few monsters.”
I looked up at the sky. It was full of dark clouds.
“It looks like it’s definitely going to rain. Should we postpone it to next time?”
“No. Let’s go through it quickly.”
It might not be a brief rain, but the monsoon season. And if I postponed the rescue request now, it would cause setbacks in other schedules. Gi Eun-chae and I ran toward the first destination.
“Is this the right place?”
We arrived at the first destination quickly. I didn’t get lost because it was a neighborhood I had been to before. However, no matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t find the promised signal. Even with Target Detection, no human energy was picked up.
“Yes. It’s correct. I’ll try contacting them.”
Gi Eun-chae took out her Soul Stone. The waiting time grew long.
“Um… Lee Hyun-nim.”
“Yeah. Did you get in touch?”
“No. There’s no answer.”
We waited for over thirty minutes on the top floor of a building. The first rescue requester never responded. This had happened once before. The probability that someone who had lost contact was dead was high.
“This won’t do. Let’s move.”
“Yes.”
We arrived at the next destination.
“Is this really the right place?”
“That is… yes. It’s correct.”
“People live there?”
We arrived at the second destination, but there wasn’t a single intact building. And a pack of orcs that had discovered us began to rush over.
“Let’s pull back for a sec… no. Let’s just kill them all.”
“Yes!”
There weren’t many of them. Together with Gi Eun-chae, I cleared out the orc pack and tried contacting the rescue requester. Once again, there was no contact for a long time.
“Don’t you think people are reaching their limits?”
“Now? If they were people who couldn’t endure, I think they would have already died.”
The people who had survived until now and used the Square were humans who had settled down to some extent. Of course, even such people could die overnight, but since this was happening twice in a row, it was a bit strange.
“Let’s go to the last neighborhood.”
“Yes. Ah…”
It was just as we were about to depart for the last destination after coming up empty-handed at the second one.
Tap, tap, tap-tap-tap-tap.
Rain began to fall.
“I’ll run a bit slower.”
“Yes!”
The rain thickened quickly. Enough to obscure our vision. Together with Gi Eun-chae, I broke through the downpour and arrived at the last destination.
“Let’s get into that building for now!”
“Yes!”
We found an intact building and ducked inside to avoid the rain. Gi Eun-chae, having roughly shaken off the water, immediately connected to the Square.
“There is… no answer.”
We had come up empty-handed until the very end.