Chapter 121: Who the Hell Are You Again? (3)
Chapter 121: Who the Hell Are You Again? (3)
How did it even come to this?
I clutched my head and looked down, staring at the horrific mess unfolding before my eyes.
"Urp. Master! What are you doing?"
"Lamenting the wretched state of the world."
My disciple merely tilted her head as if I were being strange, then turned back to the table without another word.
"...I completely understand how you feel, Senior."
"Thanks, A-bin..."
In this room, Han A-bin was the only other sane person. She was the only one who hadn't joined the war before us, and she was the only one offering me any comfort.
A world of the strong devouring the weak—a struggle to consume even a morsel more than the person next to you.
What was happening here was a microcosm of that very struggle.
"Give me that bread!"
"Finish your meat first, Sis!"
"Hey, that's my fry!"
"Eat your own! Yours!"
That was the gist of it.
The moment I had returned with food, the children, driven mad by hunger, had commenced battle. And the food I had expected to last for several days was already hitting rock bottom.
Right, they used to be animal Mutants. Of course their appetites would be voracious.
That was likely why Yeon, tired of waiting for the meat to cook, was busy gnawing on raw flesh.
Even Dam, who usually acted somewhat mature, was probably showing his true colors now. He wasn't that old, so it was understandable that he couldn't suppress his desires.
The way he shoveled an impossible amount of food into his mouth... well, his exterior might look human, but his insides were probably just like his younger sister, Yeon.
Fine, I could overlook all of that. Those kids had been starving, and they had their share of issues.
"But why is Si-hyun acting like that too?"
Has she been starving lately?
I searched my memory for a moment.
The only thing that came to mind was Baek Si-hyun emptying the rice cooker even on days she vomited from intense training, and even stealing Han A-bin’s portions.
It wasn't like she was malnourished.
I looked up again at the table where scraps of food were flying through the air.
There was Baek Si-hyun, still bickering with kids significantly younger than her.
...Does she have some kind of trait that makes her synchronize with the people around her?
Not long ago, she was playing "Hero" with them, and now she was throwing hands over food.
...Well, whatever. As long as they're enjoying it. Isn't that what food is for?
Thinking I should buy more tomorrow if I had the time, I spoke to the relatively normal Han A-bin.
"What did you do today? I assume you didn't just stay in the house the whole time."
"Oh, us? Nothing much. I looked around the underground water system with Yeon, taught her a few words..."
Most of A-bin’s story revolved around Yeon.
The mention of Baek Si-hyun and Yeon sparring caught my attention for a second, but since A-bin said it looked like they were just playing, it shouldn't be a problem.
It was probably just the Mutant blood in her being too strong to suppress her instincts or something.
It was their first time meeting a non-hostile Mutant, but they seemed to be adjusting better than I expected.
"Any plans for tomorrow?"
"Are we going out tomorrow?"
"Yeah. I found an informant."
Though I wasn't sure if I should call someone who came from that side an informant.
"Hmm. No specific plans. Playing with Yeon isn't exactly a scheduled appointment."
"Then consider tomorrow a work day. Tell Si-hyun as well."
Having delivered the message, I swiped a piece of bread from the table, stuffed it into my mouth, and stood up.
"Where are you going?"
"To sleep."
"Already?"
"I'm strangely exhausted..."
Maybe it was because I'd been meeting too many people lately, but my mind felt frayed.
I waved back at Han A-bin as she wished me a good night and headed to the bedroom, throwing myself onto the newly laid blankets.
They were still stiff, but compared to yesterday, a sense of softness enveloped me as my consciousness was sucked into the void.
* * *
"So, who are we beating up today, Master?"
"I told you, we're meeting someone."
I was sure I'd told her several times, so why was she still like this?
It had been about ten minutes since I arrived at the meeting place with Baek Si-hyun and Han A-bin in tow, and the other party had yet to show up.
During that time, I'd dealt with merchants trying to act friendly and Baek Si-hyun, who was spitting out nonsense in her excitement.
She had put her hammer away when I told her we weren't here to hit anyone, but that energy had to go somewhere, so now she was cornering an innocent merchant with a barrage of questions.
"So, what is this exactly?"
"It's a centipede! A centipede!"
"Master ate one. Is it tasty?"
"Buy one and find out for yourself!"
"Still, a centipede is a bit much, don't you think? How about using shrimp instead?"
"^$&$&$$."
It was a miracle he wasn't swearing at her.
Perhaps because I was watching, the merchant was suppressing his temper while talking to her.
It would be cruel to leave him like that, so I figured I should buy a few skewers on the way out.
"By the way..."
"Yes?"
"Why does Si-hyun seem to be getting stupider by the day?"
"...Don't ask me."
It was a half-lament, so just listen.
"She graduated from university, and she sounds smart enough when she talks, so why does she only choose to do the dumbest things?"
"...In psychology, cases like that are often linked to issues during the ego-formation stage... like a lack of affection in childhood..."
Listen to her sounding like a medical professional.
...Wait, she is a medical professional.
I'd been seeing too many quacks like Oxymoron lately that the fact had briefly evaporated from my mind.
Ego formation, childhood...
"This tastes bad!"
"%#&$$."
...I think she's just an idiot.
Watching the chaos made me feel bad for the shopkeeper, so I snatched the skewer from Si-hyun’s hand and shoved it into my mouth, then bought two more and stuffed those in as well.
Just as I handed the empty skewers back to the owner and wiped a centipede leg from the corner of my mouth—
"Have you been waiting?"
"A bit."
The voice from yesterday reached my ears, and I gave a blunt reply.
"I see. Then, let us go."
Without a single excuse, the man simply uttered those words and began to walk ahead.
"Hm? Master, is that him?"
"No, he's the guide."
After that brief exchange, we fell silent and followed him.
Leaving the noisy marketplace behind, we entered a maze filled with electrical wires and pipes.
The Nanjido maze, which I'd returned to after two days, still reeked terribly, but my disciples didn't seem to react much—perhaps they'd grown used to it while living in the sewers.
The man walking ahead turned to check if we were following, then picked up his pace.
"Keep up."
I left those words for my disciples and accelerated as well.
Pipes brushed past my head.
Wires spitting sparks created faint flickers of light, searing afterimages into my vision.
The speed gradually increased.
I looked back, worried about Han A-bin, but she seemed to be holding up fine.
How many intersections had we passed?
The texture of the walls changed. From gray concrete to something mixed with trash.
Looking at The Wall, I saw a ramen packet that had turned gray, embedded as part of the structure.
Plywood, compressed trash, and walls made of a mysterious adhesive substance that looked incredibly flimsy. These weren't part of the infrastructure; they were walls built simply to mark one's territory.
It meant we had passed the base infrastructure layer and entered the residential zone where people actually lived.
A place that was chaotic, filthy, and overflowing with the grit of daily life.
People began to appear, a sight unseen in the concrete maze.
A cheap CRT television.
A woman washing clothes in black water.
A man smiling as he lifted a syringe.
They showed no interest in us as we sprinted through their living space.
There were some unpleasant reactions when they had to dodge us or when we narrowly brushed past them.
But that was it.
As if they were too busy with their own lives, they showed no further reaction to us.
And so, we showed no reaction to them.
My two disciples looked like they wanted to say something about this way of life, but they were barely managing to keep up.
So, without mentioning their lifestyle, I continued to run.
Again, the walls changed.
Crumbling concrete, walls full of holes. Rebar barely holding things together.
An atmosphere like an abandoned, derelict building.
And from within the gaps, glints of eyes began to appear.
The residents of this level.
Thugs, members of some organization, or the predators of this district.
The true predators of Nanjido, different from the run-of-the-mill muggers.
They glared at us through the holes in the walls.
Gauging who we were, what group we belonged to, how much wealth we carried, and whether we were worth devouring.
But those gazes withered the moment they saw the man running ahead of us. They seemed to realize we were someone's guests.
And so, they lost interest.
We also ignored them and kept running.
A-bin almost tripped, but Si-hyun caught and supported her.
The walls changed once more.
Now, there was no uniformity to the walls at all.
I saw walls made of bamboo.
I saw walls made only of steel frames, without any concrete.
I saw clean walls made of marble.
I saw a gaping hole through which the outside of Nanjido was visible. There was nothing there.
"...Haah. Haah... What... is this place?"
Sensing the strangeness, Han A-bin asked between ragged breaths.
"The space is distorted."
This was another reason why the Management Bureau had given up on Nanjido.
"The inside is wider than it looks, and if you enter from the outside, there's no telling where you'll end up."
I grabbed Han A-bin as she was about to collapse and hoisted her onto my back.
"It's about to get faster, so bear with the embarrassment."
"Ah! A-bin, that's cheating!"
"..."
Ignoring Si-hyun’s complaint, I kicked off the ground.
Toward the man who was pulling further away.
Toward the man who was gradually widening the gap, even against the pursuit of a high-ranking Hero.
Of course, I wasn't going all out, but such speed should be impossible for an ordinary person.
"That... is strange..."
Noticing this, Han A-bin whispered from my back.
Well, it would be stranger if she didn't notice.
The man ahead was flickering and pulling away.
Like a jump cut in a film, he appeared and disappeared as if teleporting.
And each time he did, the distance between us grew.
"I told you the space was distorted, right?"
"Yes..."
"If you utilize that, you can move like that."
Touch a hand to a certain wall, and you move slightly forward.
Open a certain door, and it might lead to the infrastructure layer far below.
Lift a certain ornament, and you might find yourself in a different location.
A place where such things became reality.
The topmost layer of Nanjido, a structure built from trash imbued with Otherworldly Power.
We sprinted through that place.
Onward.
And onward.
* * *
"We have arrived. I am surprised you could keep up."
"It was nothing special."
"No! Problem!"
"I think I'm going to throw up..."
One disciple was half-dead despite being carried, and one idiot was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion but was still bluffing.
"Good job."
"Heavy... ugh."
When I handed the Han A-bin on my back over to Baek Si-hyun, Si-hyun’s legs buckled, and she collapsed with a strange groan. Now free, I looked at the door.
A plain concrete wall.
And a steel door attached to it. A common green steel door, the kind you'd see in an officetel or an apartment hallway.
"Is it here?"
"Yes, let us go inside. Ah, I will open the door. There is a procedure."
The man said this and reached for the doorknob.
Then, he simply turned the handle. Once to the right, once to the left.
Even with my eyes, I couldn't tell what that "procedure" was, but there must have been something hidden.
Click.
The door opened.
Simultaneously, we crossed through space and were inside the room.
We hadn't actually stepped through the door, yet we had reached the interior. It was the result of spatial distortion.
The room's appearance couldn't be called luxurious even by the most generous standards.
The ceiling was cluttered with ornaments that were clearly old, and the sofa behind us was covered in lint.
Red threads embroidered the ceiling.
Yellow cloth draped over the furniture.
Blue patterns etched into the fabric.
That was the only way to summarize the place.
The gazes of countless people converged.
The eyes of the many people in this room were all fixed on us.
"Then, please make yourselves comfortable."
The man who had guided us here vanished with those final words, and we had reached our destination.