The Cost of Survival

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a white hospital room draped in plastic sheets.

A man wearing glasses and a sky-blue sterile suit was looking down at me.

"Employee Yoon Juhyuk. I am Kim Pil-ju, Director of the Internal Affairs Department. How are you feeling?"

"...I can't feel anything."

I was lying naked on the bed.

Slender, multi-lumen IV needles were inserted all over my body, constantly pumping in drugs.

Yet, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I couldn't even feel the needles piercing my skin, nor the cold touch of the stainless steel bed against my back.

"Well, of course you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠can't."

A man wearing a white lab coat over a sterile suit stepped into my field of vision. He was an elderly man with curly white hair.

"I pumped you full of painkillers. We've done every treatment we could. I used cellular decontaminants and targeted organ decontaminants to strip away all the radioactive particles from your cells. Then, I used a cell division accelerator to normalize your damaged DNA and cells. You know what that is, right?"

The Cell Division Accelerator.

It was a drug that temporarily forced rapid cell growth and division. It was the core technology behind the cybernetic enhancement surgery I had undergone when I enlisted in the military.

"Exactly. So you must also know the side effects. It rapidly depletes your telomeres, and the frequent division drastically increases the risk of cancer. I don't know for sure, but your lifespan has probably been shortened by at least ten years. But hey, who cares? You're alive because of it, right?"

"Doctor," Director Kim Pil-ju warned in a low voice, cutting him off.

"Hey, he needs to know how much sweat and blood I poured into keeping him alive..."

"I know, Doctor. Explain it later."

Pouting, the Doctor grumbled as he walked away, "I saved your flesh and bone. But hunks of metal aren't my specialty, so I couldn't do anything about your prosthetic arm."

When I tried to lift my left arm, the limp prosthetic dragged upward like dead weight.

It felt incredibly heavy, unlike its usual weightless integration. Kim Pil-ju caught the arm as it threatened to drop back down.

"It was exposed to high-level radiation for too long, frying its processing unit. We ran diagnostics, but there was no response."

The outer casing of the prosthetic arm had been stripped away. Through the exposed machinery, I could see CC's quantum processor.

I tried to summon the prosthetic's management console through my neck-hub, but there was no response.

I looked at Kim Pil-ju and asked, "Is this... Maetan?"

"Yes. Do you remember how you got here?"

"...I walked."

"To be precise, you crawled. A farm worker saw what he thought was a corpse crawling along. At first, he thought you were some kind of humanoid mutant. By the time he realized you were suffering from severe radiation poisoning, he was planning to just wait for you to die so he could dump you somewhere far away."

A heavily irradiated person is essentially a walking lump of radiation. Left alone, they contaminate everything around them.

"But he said you were still breathing even after he waited a whole day. Eventually, a report was sent up to Maetan, and we were able to rescue you. How on earth did you get exposed to that much radiation?"

"...I had no choice if I wanted to shake off the machine species. They avoid highly radioactive zones. I held out there until they left."

"...That must have taken quite a while."

"About two days...? I'm not entirely sure."

Back then, CC had wanted to sacrifice herself and my prosthetic arm to distract the oncoming multi-legged tanks. Instead, I had proposed an alternative plan.

The premise was simple: Hold out in a high-radiation zone until they leave.

The machine species despised high-radiation zones. Unless they were being actively hacked and controlled by an operator—like when they blocked our bus—they refused to enter radioactive areas. I had heard it was because the intense radiation caused critical bugs in their artificial intelligence.

I had endured a full day underground in that irradiated zone. Although I had wrapped myself in protective gear and wore a gas mask, it couldn't block all the radiation. Within a few hours, intense nausea had washed over me, and I had to cling to a fraying thread of consciousness just to survive.

"How did you encounter the machine species in the first place?"

"The raiders summoned them."

"Our records show you went on an out-of-office assignment to Pyeongtaek. You're saying the raiders summoned the machines?"

"They had an incredibly skilled operator with them."

"What happened to the others?"

"They were still alive when we split up at the end."

"Hmm."

Kim Pil-ju scanned the room, checking our surroundings. Once he was certain we were alone, he leaned in close to my ear and whispered, "What happened to the AI?"

"...I don't know what you're talking about."

"You found an artificial intelligence in Pyeongtaek. Did the machine species take it?"

"At least, I never found one."

"Then did the raiders take it?"

Suddenly, I realized his hand was still gripping my prosthetic arm. Did he already know everything, and was just testing me? Behind his glasses, his dark eyes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stared straight into mine, as if trying to read my innermost thoughts.

...No, it was a bluff.

If they knew about the quantum processor, there was no way this prosthetic would still be attached to my arm. In fact, they wouldn't have had any reason to keep me alive in the first place. They could have just ripped the processor out of my left arm and left me to rot.

Right now, they were desperate for information. They needed to know if anyone else survived, and where the quantum processor was.

"I don't know."

I wondered if that answer would suffice.

Straightening his back, he said, "To be honest, we already interrogated you using truth serum while you were anesthetized."

Kim Pil-ju pulled a small analog voice recorder from his pocket. He pressed the play button, and a voice began to play.

My voice on the recording sounded slurred, but I had spoken with complete honesty. I had told them about the raiders' ambush, and how the operator had summoned the tank. And then, that final question had come.

My agonizing screams echoed from the speaker. A moment later, the recording cut off with the Doctor's voice saying he was administering a sedative.

Kim Pil-ju slipped the recorder back into his pocket. "Actually, we also found traces of the security team you split up with. We found tracks heading southeast."

"And they...?"

Kim Pil-ju didn't answer.

"You'll be able to move your body soon. I hope you're grateful. We poured a massive amount of precious resources into keeping you alive."

That was unexpected even for me. I never imagined they would go to such lengths to treat me.

"We were desperate to know what happened out there. We had to keep you alive ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to ask questions. Besides, we aren't so heartless as to abandon a hero who made it back alive all on his own. Of course, from the corporate perspective, they only cared about keeping you breathing, but..."

Pil-ju shrugged. "The Guild Leader of Sprout and Player Kang Yeolchan insisted that we save you at all costs. We couldn't exactly ignore the demands of an S-rank and an A-rank player."

So Yoo Hyeyeon and Kang Yeolchan had intervened. I owed them my life.

"Are you two done?" The curly-haired, white-haired doctor returned to the room, laughing cheerfully.

"Thank you for saving my life."

"Oh, you'd better thank me with everything you've got. It was a real pain in the ass. Though, thanks to you, I got to examine a soldier's body after a long time. I gathered a ton of great experimental data. Hehehehe."

The Doctor smiled slyly. I shuddered to think what he had done to me while I was unconscious.

"At your current recovery rate, you'll be fully cured in two weeks. You might have some trouble walking, suffer from indigestion, occasionally pass bloody stools, cough up blood, and if you're unlucky, your teeth and hair might fall out—but hey, you won't die."

Could you really call that "fully cured"?

"Got a complaint? Hey, I dragged you back from the brink of death. Indigestion and hair loss are a steal, don't you think?"

"I suppose so. Thank you."

"But our hospital isn't a place where we keep you until you're fully recovered. You have to be discharged tomorrow. Unless you want to pay out of pocket to stay longer... Do you have some Maetan Points?"

"...I do."

Maetan's corporate hospital was notorious for its terrible rumors. Despite being the city's only official medical facility, barely anyone actually used it. The rumors of their absurd medical bills were legendary.

One particularly famous story involved a patient admitted with a broken leg who had to surrender a kidney and an eyeball to cover the bill before being discharged.

Still, I wasn't too worried. Even after paying for CC's virtual avatar, I still had about 20 million points left. That should be more than enough to cover the treatment.

"The treatment and fourteen days of hospitalization come to eighty-seven million Maetan Points."

"Whaaaaaaaat?!"

"Why are you so shocked? I brought you back from the dead, so of course it costs that much. What, you don't have it?"

"I... uh... but... how..."

I couldn't even form proper words. My brief taste of wealth was already gone. Was I going to have to go back to shaking down the Garden gang tomorrow just to survive...?

"Keke, don't worry. Most of it is free."

"Huh?"

"You were injured in the line of duty, so of course your treatment is covered by worker's comp."

In that instant, I swore to dedicate my life to this company. Not only did they provide me with my daily bread, but now they had practically granted me a second life. Their grace was as vast as the ocean. Damn it, how could anyone not feel corporate loyalty under these conditions?!

"Ah, but your hospitalization period is treated as unpaid leave."

"Excuse me?"

"Since you were hospitalized for fifteen days... excluding the two weekends, only fifty percent of your salary will be paid out this month."

"...But fifty percent of my salary is already being withheld at the source to pay off my signing bonus."

"Is that so? Well, then you won't be getting a paycheck at all this month. And while the actual medical treatment is free, you're still billed for meals, transport, radiation decontamination fees, and hygiene maintenance. We only cover the bare-bones medical care, you see."

"Hygiene maintenance?"

"Cleaning up your piss and shit while you were asleep. Our nurses worked their asses off."

The Doctor scribbled something on his clipboard with a pencil and thrust it in front of my face.

"One... ten... hundred... eight million?!"

"And if we include the cost of the medication you'll need to take from now on, it comes to about this much."

The Doctor scribbled a '4,000,000' right below the '8,000,000'.

"Plus, from now on, each day of hospitalization will cost you five hundred thousand Maetan Points. It'll be automatically deducted at 9:00 AM every morning, so don't worry about it. Since you're a soldier and still young and healthy, you'll probably only need about fifteen more days of hospitalization to move around like you used to, even if you aren't fully cured."

"If you take that much, I'll starve to death!"

"What are you talking about? This is a hospital, and I'm right here. Don't worry, if you look like you're about to die, I'll save you again. For a fee, of course."

The Doctor let out a sinister chuckle. Was this the sheer administrative genius of Maetan? I couldn't say a word, staring blankly at the numbers.

The Doctor patted my shoulder and said, "What can you do? Just think of it as a character-building experience in your youth, and hang in there. Fighting!"

I discharged myself immediately.

Dragging my barely responsive legs, I made my way back home.

My apartment, left empty for over a fortnight, was a complete mess, as if a burglar had ransacked the place.

It didn't matter. There was nothing of value here for anyone to steal anyway.

Lying down on my bed, I lifted my left arm.

The limp steel prosthetic dragged along lifelessly.

I tried to summon the prosthetic's management console through my neck-hub, but there was no response.

Just as I was about to call out CC's name, familiar pink text flashed before my eyes.

I lowered my left arm as naturally as possible and stretched. Surveillance? I hadn't sensed anything of the sort.

Groping around the head of the bed with my right hand, I found the USB cable and plugged it into my neck-hub.

In an instant, the shabby ceiling of my room dissolved, replaced by the familiar sky of Intra-Maetan.

"Mister."

A blonde girl called out to me.