Chapter 1
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Spectrum
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On the continent, those who wield mana each possess at least one special color.
This is known as one's mana talent, Spectrum.
Why is it that, even using the same mana, some can control house-sized golems, others synthesize actual living creatures, and some are total garbage...
Spectrum is such a crucial factor in evaluating raw mana potential that those with garbage ones tend to draw a lot of pity.
Like me, sprawled out here in this abandoned factory.
"Hey. My Spectrum really is a Notebook, I swear?"
A pure white window floats across my retina. This blank sheet, visible only to me, records and stores the thoughts I form into sentences. Once saved, I can recall the contents anytime, anywhere.
So, it's a Notebook.
This is my Spectrum.
Fuck.
"I had nothing better to do with it, so I kept a diary? What a fucking useless Notebook. Won't help me jack shit until I die."
Thanks to that, I'm a dead man. More precisely, I'm moments from death, but whatever.
Right now, I have no feeling below my neck. My gut's split wide open, blood pouring out, but there's zero pain. Cervical spine's completely severed.
No pain means it's good, right?
—Ungrateful fly bastard.
A guttural low rumble echoes through the empty factory, like it's chewing on my vocal cords.
If a wolf could talk, it'd sound just like that—and its looks match too. Human body, but limbs twisted into full beast mode. A werewolf.
That's the bastard's Spectrum. Beastification, or some shit like that.
"For a fly, you're getting treated way too well."
Me? Notebook.
Memos anytime, anywhere. Even teetering on death's door, I can jot down some backtalk about this prick?
Totally worth bragging about.
I asked the dog—no, the wolf.
"Did the Chairperson send you?"
—Ha. You think the Chairperson gives a damn about you? Some bug like you?
"Gotta be a little, right? I know 'Libra' inside and out. Hell, I'm from Libra myself."
Libra. The continent's pinnacle of prestige. The current Chairperson's family.
The power to raze the Gert Mountains to flatland with a single word—that's my enemy.
—...Sion Askal. You're way too full of yourself. You don't know shit.
Most personal grudge there is.
They turned me into an orphan. Fucked my entire life beyond repair.
"What don't I know? Ain't nobody knows Libra like me, 'cept maybe that gimpy bastard."
The wolf straightened up. Fur sprouted wildly across its face. Its muzzle stretched out, pupils turning sickly yellow.
Full-on werewolf now.
—Don't kid yourself. You were never a real enemy to Libra. Not even a threat.
"Sigh. Fine, whatever. I'm just a sickly fuck anyway."
Nine years old: brain tumor. Somehow beat it. Thirteen: leukemia. Miraculously survived. Eighteen: dantian cancer... My life's been one hell of a ride.
"Oh yeah. You ever actually seen the Chairperson in person?"
—...
Silence.
Probably means no.
"Never? After seven years of service?"
—Shut your trap.
"Makes sense. The old bat's public appearances in her whole life? You could count 'em on one hand. I've seen her three times."
—...Three times?
The wolf's brow twitched. Looked genuinely curious.
"Yeah. Once by chance at elementary graduation. Once on election day. Once at her first assembly session."
—What was the Chairperson like?
The wolf's tongue flicks out. Eyes widen just a touch. Tail starts wagging furiously.
Spot-on loyal pup dreaming of its master.
"Hmm..."
I sank into memory for a sec.
Those days I laid eyes on the Chairperson. The moments I faced the head of the family I've hated my whole damn life.
"Eh."
Even as I'm getting offed, clinging to this feeling feels pathetic as hell—but I gotta admit it.
"Can't put it into words."
She had something beyond beauty itself... a mystical aura, like she embodied some holy essence.
"Like religion. So yeah, I get you fanatics' obsessive loyalty, to a point."
—...Sounds like a fulfilling life.
"Fuck off."
The wolf's bullshit snapped my eyes wide open.
Fulfilling? Bullshit. No way in hell.
Lived as a disease incubator, not a real human. Lifetime of battling sickness, just to wither away? Satisfying? Please.
If there's a God, I'll curse the bastard till my last breath.
Snort!
The wolf clears its snout.
—Point is, you wasted your time on the impossible. Annoying fly buzzing around a mountain.
"..."
Might be true.
My all-out efforts—digging up Libra's dirt, dragging their crimes into the light.
Just turned into bar gossip fodder.
The public forgot the blood-soaked cries of Libra's victims in a flash. Didn't even bother remembering. Colleagues? Turned their backs on me.
Knew from the jump it was a fight I couldn't win.
"...Still, I snagged something pretty damn useful at the end."
—Haven't learned a thing. Told you not to delude yourself. Your death? Straight from the Chairperson's office. She doesn't give a shit about dust like you—
"Yeah, yeah."
I tilted my head back. Leaned it against the cold concrete wall.
A hollow wind slipped through the factory's shattered windows.
Then I grinned, baring my teeth wide.
"See this?"
—...
The white crystal wedged in my front tooth. The wolf's eyes narrow at it.
Libra's breakthrough mana composite material—Perion prototype.
The core source for the top-tier body mana amplifier, soon to hit mass production.
—And? What now?
"Give me some props. Took a ton of work to steal it."
That's why I'm dying here, really.
If I'd laid low, I might've squeezed out another month.
Point is, my life was capped at one month tops anyway.
That tumor in my dantian already wrecked my whole body.
"So, this Perion shit amps up your essence? Helps with dungeon clears? You hyped it nonstop, but how many thousands died making it? Your trials? Snatched up homeless and orphans, you fucking pieces of shit."
Crunch!
I bit down and swallowed the Perion.
Chomp! Chomp!
Chewed it up real showy-like and gulped.
Amplifier my ass—no surge or anything. Should be a lethal overdose, but my body's just a bit warm, vision spinning a little.
Ah, nerves all severed, huh.
I hocked a loogie right at the bastard.
"Ptooey— you fuck. That's about 10 billion ren in damage to Libra."
—...Perion prototypes are stocked at every continental branch. Means we've got ten more just like it.
"..."
—Think we're amateurs like you?
I stared blankly at the wolf. It stared right back.
A sigh bubbled up from deep inside.
"Ah~ what a clusterfuck. You absolute fucking assholes."
In the end, I accomplished jack shit.
No revenge. Not even a tiny scratch. Just a slight itch and annoyance, like the wolf said. A fly.
That's all I ever was.
—...
"What're you gawking at? Just kill me already. Tongue's going numb."
Shing—the claws rose up. Moonlight glinted off the razor edge.
"Hey. You fucker. Hypothetical here. If you ever meet that Chairperson person someday... pass this along for me."
I smiled without a sound.
"Please... in this fucked-up world, just eat well and take care of yourself."
Its claw flashed right under my eyes.
Straight through my throat.
This fucking bastard.