Day 15
I turned my head to the side.
A massive man nearly two meters tall, clad in a doctor's coat, was staring at me with indifferent eyes.
"Who are you?"
"Kaminoyama Kazuto. Director of this hospital."
"Hospital director? This place is a hospital?"
I looked around. There was blood and chunks of flesh, sure, but nothing about it felt like a hospital. To my eyes, this was a factory.
"The main house and the hospital are connected. We designed it this way for efficiency. The hospital makes it convenient to secure materials, while the main house manages the precious finished product—Hyeoldan."
The hospital wasn't far from the mansion. We'd come through an underground passage to get here, so calling this a hospital wasn't all that strange. Well, whether it was a hospital or not didn't really matter to me.
I tightened my grip on the hilt of the Japanese sword.
Kaminoyama Kazuto still wore that indifferent look as he pulled a weapon from the pocket of his coat. A black pistol came into view.
A Colt M1911.
The muzzle of a handgun beloved even after a hundred years was aimed straight at me. I glared at him through bloody tears.
I was at a disadvantage. No—it was far worse than that. More than ten meters separated us. With my current physical abilities, I couldn't close that distance in a single burst. The moment I ran, the bullet would fly, and a hole would open in my body.
I'll have to use Complete Recovery.
I'd already steeled myself to die once.
"I've got a proposal for you."
"…A proposal?"
"I hear you killed dozens of villagers. I want that ability of yours. I'll pay you a salary no one would sneer at. Work under me."
"Sorry, but I've got no intention of rotting away stuck in this village."
"Don't worry about that. Once this mess is cleaned up, I plan to move the workshop. The shrine maiden will have to allow it, of course… but thanks to someone, this village's value has plummeted, so she'll probably agree."
"Still no. I don't have the slightest desire to work under your brat."
"A shame."
He pulled the trigger. I'd been watching his finger, so I immediately ducked behind the machine next to me.
"You dodged the bullet… Impressive."
"Kaminoyama Kazuto. Are you the one in charge of this village… no, this whole operation?"
"Operation… I like that word. But I'm not the one in charge. If anything, I'm the second-in-command."
"So the shrine maiden at the shrine is the one running things. What's your relationship with her?"
"Siblings. Though that monster of a woman probably doesn't think of me as her older brother…"
Kaminoyama Kazuto answered easily. I'd hoped he would close the distance to kill me, but he didn't. Instead he walked sideways, taking a position where he could shoot me cleanly.
The moment I saw him, I moved to the side of the machine. Ting! The bullet struck the machine and ricocheted away.
"A monster? For a monster, she was pretty damn beautiful."
"I look at a person's interior, not their exterior. A person's exterior is nothing more than a lump of meat in the end. The shrine maiden—that woman—likes to play with people."
"Play with them, huh…"
I nodded.
If the villagers had intended to kill the circle members, they could have done it on the very first day we arrived.
People, weapons, terrain—everything had favored the village. Yet the villagers hadn't attacked on day one. Instead they'd staged an atmosphere of dissonance. They cultivated strangeness, unease, and fear. Like a carefully written play. And the shrine maiden was both the playwright and the director.
But that required one condition: the shrine maiden had to hold complete control over the village.
"How? How did the shrine maiden seize this village?"
"Faith and drugs. She bewitched the villagers with nonsense about a mountain god. She used narcotics appropriately and dressed Hyeoldan up as a gift from the gods. Surprisingly, the villagers believed it without much suspicion."
"Because Hyeoldan is that outstanding. Once you see the effects, you can't help but believe."
Just eating it raised physical abilities. Swallow it while sick with a cold and the cold vanished in an instant.
In this world, Hyeoldan was something that defied common sense. And they'd used drugs on top of that? Game over, basically.
"That woman would have dominated the village even without Hyeoldan."
"You're overrating your little sister. Did you know? Before I came here, I killed the old man in the mansion."
"Father's dead, is he. So? Are you hoping I'll feel rage toward you?"
"Your old man gets murdered and you're not angry? What a cold-blooded bastard."
"An incompetent man simply died. If anything, I've taken a liking to you."
"You two didn't get along, then."
Even as the conversation continued, the fight went on. He carefully squeezed the trigger, and I used the machines as cover while steadily closing the distance between us.
"It has nothing to do with Father. That woman—the shrine maiden—twisted her face and screamed because of you. She was furious that her script had been ruined. Watching that, I felt ten years of pent-up frustration just melt away. It was thoroughly satisfying."
Bang.
A bullet flew. It grazed my cheek by a hair's breadth.
Three meters. At this range… I can kill him without using Complete Recovery.
I steeled myself and was about to charge when—
KWAANG!
The door burst open as if smashed, and someone charged in.
"He's here."
Kaminoyama Kazuto widened the distance and stepped back. From the start he'd been buying time, waiting for this intruder. He slipped the gun back into his coat pocket.
I climbed onto a machine and looked at the one who'd barged in.
It was a massive man in black clothes, but the proportions of his body were wrong. His lower half was ordinary, yet his upper body was absurdly oversized. His forearms were like wooden barrels. His head was wrapped in black cloth. Every time he exhaled, the black cloth covering his head fluttered.
"…Joseon bastard. The shrine maiden has ordered me to kill you."
He strode toward me.
"…Is that thing human?"
"It is human. We just modified it a bit using Hyeoldan. …The problem is it doesn't listen to a word I say."
"Out of the way, Director."
"Shibata. The machines here are expensive. Try not to break them if you can help it."
"……"
The one called Shibata charged at me head-on.
I leapt down from the machine and dodged sideways. Shibata slammed into the machine. It shattered. Human blood that had been inside spilled across the floor.
"Still as crude as ever."
Kaminoyama Kazuto clicked his tongue. He leaned against the wall with a leisurely expression, watching the situation unfold. Seeing him pull out a cigarette and put it in his mouth made it clear he had no intention of intervening.
"Joseon bastard…! Kill…!"
Shibata's body after colliding with the machine was far from intact. His right shoulder and forearm were crushed out of shape and wounded. His muscles writhed. The wounds vanished and the crushed muscle returned to its original form. An absurd recovery speed.
He lifted a machine with one enormous hand. A machine that had to weigh at least five hundred kilograms, and he casually hurled it at me.
I rolled across the floor and dodged the attack.
"You created a monster like this?!"
"The shrine maiden called it a miracle of the mountain god. In my opinion, it's closer to a miraculous coincidence."
Kaminoyama Kazuto answered.
"Shrine maiden! I'll kill him! Yes! As the mountain god wills!"
"That bastard. Anyone can see his brain's completely fried."
"The result of the shrine maiden's painstaking brainwashing. I watched from the side… she was thorough about it. If I'd been brainwashed the way Shibata was, I would have killed myself without hesitation. Well, I understand. She wouldn't have wanted to lose a monster of Shibata's caliber."
I couldn't answer Kaminoyama Kazuto. I didn't have the leeway. Dodging Shibata's attacks was already taking everything I had.
I have to stop thinking of this as fighting a human. This thing… is a monster.
By rank, an E-Class monster.
With my real-world physical abilities I could have burst its head with a single punch, but right now I couldn't even use my acceleration ability.
Shibata's attacks were simple and crude. His movements were so obvious that dodging them wasn't that hard. But—
If this keeps up, I'm going to die.
My breath was already scraping the back of my throat. The limits of my stamina were showing. I dodged Shibata's attacks and swung my sword in counter. But it had no effect. I lacked the strength to land a decisive blow.
…To fight a monster, I have no choice but to become a monster myself.
I pulled Hyeoldan from my pocket.
Seven of them.
I took out three more. I dumped all ten Hyeoldan into my mouth. Crunch. Crunch. I chewed and swallowed them.
"You've lost your mind…"
Kaminoyama Kazuto watched me with fascinated eyes.
My already blood-red vision turned even redder, and my entire body grew hot. To rein in the overflowing power I gripped the sword hilt even harder. Crack. The skin of my hand tore, bones broke, and blood sprayed. Yet the strength in my grip only grew stronger instead of loosening.
It wasn't that there was no pain. It was simply so faint it didn't even register as a pinch. The stimulation actually felt pleasant.
"Heh… heh heh."
Shibata's movements were crystal clear. Proof that the Hyeoldan had raised my dynamic vision.
This is doable.
I collided with him head-on. I cut his right arm halfway through, took a left fist to the body, and went flying backward into the wall.
"……!!"
Not enough.
Even after chewing ten Hyeoldan, my physical abilities still fell short of his. Thanks to the Hyeoldan's effects I at least hadn't died instantly. Half a dozen ribs felt broken, though.
"Hah…"
At the sound of a swallowed breath I turned my head. A panicked Kaminoyama Kazuto pulled the pistol from his pocket and shot me in the side. The bullet buried itself in my flank. With no pain, it didn't even feel particularly dangerous. I swung my sword and severed Kaminoyama Kazuto's neck.
I caught the falling head and hurled it at Shibata. Shibata swatted the head aside with his left hand as if batting away a bug. The head flew toward a machine and burst open like a watermelon.
Shibata charged.
I opened the door and fled. Fighting him head-on was a lost cause. Even if I ate more Hyeoldan, it wouldn't be enough against that thing.
"Stop right there!!"
Climbing the stairs brought me to the hospital's first floor. The lights were on, and several nurses were visible. No young ones—all middle-aged.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
The nurses screamed the moment they saw me. I understood. After downing ten Hyeoldan, I probably no longer looked human.
I pushed past the nurses and headed for the lobby. The men in suits sitting there shot to their feet, pulled guns from their jackets, and aimed at me. Their reactions were fairly quick, but the muzzles couldn't keep up with my movements. I cut down every last one of the gunmen.
Got myself a pistol. Even that monster bastard should be equal before a gun.
I fired at the one chasing me. I aimed for the head, but not a single bullet hit it. Instead several rounds buried themselves in his body.
Guns were not equal.
The bullets lodged in his body were pushed back out and clattered to the floor. He didn't slow for even a second.
"Come here and die quietly!"
"Like hell I'm dying quietly."
Without looking back, I fled outside the hospital.