Chapter 395: Looking Up at the Ground (1)
Chapter 395: Looking Up at the Ground (1)
The days following the end of that experiment, where the researchers went on a mad rampage, had been quite busy.
Between disciplinary committees, there was Dr. Ludwig—the ultimate nutcase who insisted on continuing the experiment even after that mess—and Brigadier General Un-ho, whose fur turned brown again less than a day after it had reverted to white. Even the tentacles had learned some strange new dance.
In the midst of all that, a bizarre incident occurred where a team involving Baek Si-hyun built some strange robot that went berserk, forcing me to step in and smash it myself.
Apparently, after being completed and activated, it showed no reaction for a while. Then, 33 minutes into its operation, it suddenly declared, "Humans are creatures that deserve extinction," and lost its mind.
Thanks to me resolving that matter, the disciplinary measures imposed on me were slightly mitigated.
The robot's actual combat power wasn't that high, but whatever Baek Si-hyun had done to it, the thing managed to compromise the laboratory's internal network in just fifteen minutes and was on the verge of breaching the Management Bureau’s direct line firewall.
I was essentially credited with the swift extermination of a monster that, while physically weak, possessed a specialized hacking ability so dangerous it could have caused a catastrophe if left alone.
As a result, my future was commuted from the desperate prospect of "paying to work" at the tail end of a paid vacation to merely "unpaid labor."
I only recently learned about this "unpaid labor" thing; it seems the Management Bureau’s General Affairs Department had cooked up a new clause.
In cases exceeding specific criteria, the Management Bureau shall not bear the damages the Hero in question is liable for. Instead, the payment shall be treated as an interest-free installment and withheld at the source from their activity funds.
The clause stated it was newly established because some Heroes were abusing The System where the Bureau covers over 90% of damages as a special exemption for Heroic activities.
However, seeing as the "specific criteria" were vaguely defined as being handled flexibly according to the judgment of the General Affairs and HR Departments, it was clearly a sniper clause aimed at me.
One might call it self-centered to think so, but honestly, look at the examples provided:
Every single one applied to me. It was impossible to see it as anything other than a clause designed specifically to screw me over.
The last line was particularly malicious.
One might wonder how an individual could possibly cause damage worth 1,000 times their expected income. But for someone like me, who is under an infinite salary freeze and receives less than the UN-mandated global minimum wage, even 1,000 times that amount is pathetically low.
And since my activity funds hit zero this time, that multiplier has technically stretched into infinity.
But hey, do I look like I care?
My relationship with General Affairs and HR soured a long, long time ago anyway.
"Save on operation costs," "This individual is ineligible for worker's compensation"... Every time they pulled that, I trashed their offices, so my reputation is already in the gutter.
I have acquaintances in the Research, Medical, Tech Development, and Command departments who can cover for me, but I don't know a soul over there, so there was no one to have my back.
I haven't had much reason to bicker with them lately since I've been away from the field, but thinking about it now just pisses me off.
Honestly, does it make sense to tell me to lower operation costs?
How much could a few enchanted grenades possibly cost that they have to tell me to be stingy?
When a person is in the middle of an operation, they might use a few hundred of those things. They might even drop them in the wrong place and go, "Oops, guess it wasn't here."
Training a single member of the Assassination or Special Task Team is far more expensive and a much bigger deal than the numbers on their paperwork. Morons.
And what? Side effects from overdosing on enhancement drugs aren't covered by worker's comp? It's the user's responsibility for exceeding the dosage limit set by the Bureau’s Defense Team?
They were really putting on a show back then.
When I stormed in and flipped their desks, they acted like they were being generous by making an "exception." So I went all the way to headquarters and trashed that too, and only then did the regulation finally change.
There are many things in this world more important than money, but I don't know why they make such a fuss over it.
Anyway, I've rambled on about General Affairs and HR, but it boils down to this:
"So, what I'm saying is, how about buying this poor Hero a can of beer? Mr. Convenience Store Clerk."
I've been doing this for decades, but this is the first time I've seen a zero on my statement. I only have 21 won in my bank account.
Plus, I have to pay back the ten dollars I owe the guy I played poker with yesterday.
This is when I need Hyun-seok, but for some reason, he hasn't been picking up his phone lately.
I did manage to get through once. When I answered his "Is this Lee Ha-ram?" with "Yeah, can I borro—" he hung up immediately.
"I'll give you a piece of candy, so could you please just leave?"
"I got one yesterday too."
"Yes, so just take it and go."
Dammit.
Calavera, man. When are you getting here?
I can't live like this anymore.
* * *
Three weeks had passed since I became a local fixture, wandering the Research Institute while starving.
Well, to be precise, I wasn't literally starving since the staff cafeteria provides free meals. But since I have a body that doesn't technically need food, "meals" to me are snacks for my mental health. Being unable to eat those meant I was effectively starving.
I became a full-blown institute legend, hanging around the convenience store every day talking nonsense and shaking down passing researchers.
What was it they said?
Si-hyun, who is an unnervingly good source of institute gossip, told me the rumor.
Apparently, if you offer food when the blue-and-white child passes by, your ongoing project will proceed without a hitch.
No wonder the researchers had been so submissive about buying me things lately. To think there was such a backstory.
It's a good thing to go from being a God of Misfortune to a bringer of luck, I suppose.
But I feel like I'm being treated more and more like some kind of mythical cryptid.
Well, whatever.
A-bin’s gaze toward me seems to be getting weirder by the day, but that's also fine.
Anyway, time flowed on, and the day Calavera was scheduled to arrive finally came.
I went out to the main gate of the institute and met him as he calmly crossed the wasteland.
And the first words I had for him were already decided.
"Calavera."
"Indeed. I have heard the news. That an evil buried in the past has clawed its way out of the earth to reveal itself."
No, I don't care about that.
"Lend me some money. I'm dying here."
"...Death is not so close, Lee Ha-ram. Especially not for the likes of you."
No, it's very close.
I'm about to die socially.
* * *
In the end, Calavera, seemingly exhausted by me clinging to his pant leg, bought me greasy food and beer.
After gulping it all down, I dragged him straight to the site without even introducing him to my disciples.
The valley, guarded by the Defense Force, had been left untouched for a long time since the incident.
Per my orders, not a single thing had been recovered, and the valley had transformed into a hellscape.
The stench of rot wafted from everywhere.
Countless insects and animals had bred, feasting on the corpses.
We stepped into a place where such things existed in abundance.
As we trudged across the ground, which had that peculiar stickiness unique to places where bodies rot.
The more perceptive rats, birds, and those insects famous for their black sheen all vanished the moment we appeared.
However, clouds of black flies swarmed the air, blocking our path.
I waited before them, showing no particular emotion.
Normally, I would have summoned wind or a shockwave to drive them away, but it was fine now.
Who was the man standing beside me?
An expert in all phenomena related to death.
I had Calavera with me.
"...Disperse."
When he stood before the swarm and whispered those words.
The black mist of flies scattered instantly, vanishing from sight.
With the fog blocking our vision gone, the gruesome landscape hidden behind it came into view.
A land where skeletons sprouted like trees between collapsed rocks.
The mysterious lumps that often appear where corpses rot—the ones that feel strangely soft when stepped on—had all been cleared away by the insects and animals gathered here. Instead, brown stains, the remnants of flesh, were scattered everywhere.
Confronted with such a sight, neither I nor Calavera showed any emotion.
It was a scene we had witnessed far too often.
If even I felt this way, it must be an even more familiar sight for Calavera, whose entire profession revolved around this.
In that cleared space where nothing obstructed our view.
The two of us slowly scanned the surroundings.
About thirty seconds passed.
"Do you sense anything?"
"Nothing. You?"
"The same here."
Good.
Then, let's begin.
Step.
With that intent, I took a step forward.
Calavera pulled on a pair of white gloves and slowly followed behind me.
The target was the nearest skeleton, wedged between the rocks.
I reached the skeleton, less than thirty paces away, and surveyed the area. Calavera used his gloved hand to lift the skull, which still had bits of skin clinging to it.
He narrowed his eyes, meeting the gaze of the hollow eye sockets.
In the process, bits of rotten flesh remaining inside the skull slid out, staining his clothes and gloves. He didn't react, simply staring intensely at the cranium.
After about a minute, he slowly placed the skull back where it had been and spoke.
"...Suspicious."
"What is?"
"The state of the remains."
"What's so strange? I've told you a million times, don't say things only you can understand."
We can't see souls or whatever, Mr. Necromancer.
To me, it just looks like a normal skeleton with some rotten meat left on it.
"I feel no spiritual reaction whatsoever from the body."
"Isn't that just because they've been dead for a long time?"
"Even so, traces of the soul or residual thoughts usually remain. In that sense, this is strange."
Snap.
Explaining this to me, Calavera snapped his fingers, which were stained a greenish-brown from the corpse fluids.
Rustle.
The skeleton Calavera had just been touching pushed aside the rocks weighing it down and stood up on the spot.
"It is certainly a human frame. I considered the possibility that someone had prepared false corpses to hide the truth, but..."
Snap.
Calavera snapped his fingers again as soon as he finished speaking.
The skeleton, which had been trying to adjust its skull onto its neck, collapsed instantly.
"...So, what does that mean?"
I had been staring blankly at the necromancy show, but I had to ask because I couldn't grasp what Calavera found suspicious or what he was trying to verify.
"Through spiritual means alone, I cannot prove this body was ever alive. Therefore, even with my power, I cannot read its life to extract information."
"...Huh?"
Wait, what?
While I was reeling from Calavera’s words.
"Hmm. Is this one individual special? Or is everyone in this sector the same?"
Calavera stroked his chin with his clean hand, looking toward the rocky hills beyond.
"Verification is required."
With those words, Calavera stroked the skull hanging at his waist.
Click. Clack. Clack. Clack.
The sound of the skull chattering its teeth.
The stylized skull hanging from Calavera’s belt chattered its teeth as its jewel eyes glowed, and with every click, a white halo of light spread from between its teeth.
The halos scattered bright light in all directions.
They swirled around us for a moment before gradually dispersing and sinking into the crevices of the rocks.
The moment all the light vanished into the ground and darkness descended once more.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
With a massive tremor.
Boom! Crash! Bang!
Skeletons erupted from all directions.
Smashing and casting aside the rocks that had bound them.
The corpses that had been destined to be buried under stone forever saw the light once more, summoned by a single necromancer.
The countless skeletons moved their feet in an orderly fashion, gathering before Calavera.
About five minutes after that large-scale resurrection.
One skeleton, perhaps buried particularly deep, reached us last, dragging its body with its one remaining hand.
As if that were the final one.
"You have worked hard."
At Calavera’s single sentence, the skeletons stopped moving and slumped back down.
Before us lay a sea of white bones and rotting flesh.
We looked down at them with expressionless faces.
Soon, Calavera stepped toward the corpses and spoke.
"Now then, let us check them one by one."
"Right."