Chapter 141
Chapter 141
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 141
Chapter Title: The Land Forsaken by the Stars (3)
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*Gurgle.*
A basement saturated with moisture.
Droplets of water, like leaking rainwater, condensed on the walls and dripped to the floor. *Plip, plop.*
Only the squelching sound of water echoed through the gloomy darkness of the basement.
*Click.*
“Ugh, the smell.”
“It always stinks down here.”
The flick of a switch on a dim light revealed a man and a woman.
The woman, with piercings on her nose and lips, pinched her nose as she surveyed the basement.
The interior looked like a place where a mad scientist would repeatedly conduct inhuman experiments to create the ultimate life form.
Lining the damp walls were large, cylindrical tanks filled with clear water, connected by tubes that spread out like blood vessels.
Should one consider it a relief?
The cylindrical tanks, which looked like they could hold chimeras from horrific experiments or abducted aliens, were empty.
“Looks like the digestion chamber needs a cleaning.”
“Ugh… what a pain. Can’t we just make the prey we caught do it?”
Digestion chamber, prey.
Ominous words laced the conversation between the two.
At the woman’s suggestion to use the prey, the man shook his head with a look of distaste.
“Don’t even think about it. What if the prey goes wild and breaks a tank? We’d get this from Sir Sosuke that very day.”
The man shook his head, making a throat-slitting gesture.
Hearing this, the woman pouted her pierced lips and continued.
“He barely ever shows his face, anyway.”
“That’s because we’re just grunts who throw prey into the digestion chamber.”
“Hey, who are you calling a grunt? That’s offensive to a grunt who’s listening.”
The woman burst into giggles, a playful smile on her face.
Although they joked about being grunts, their actual ranks within the Hippocampus faction were quite high.
After all, only Intermediate Officers and above were permitted to enter the ‘digestion chamber.’
“Oh, right. By the way, I’m getting promoted to Senior next week.”
“Oh, really? We should have a celebration party.”
“Your gift will be this, right?”
The woman’s hand suggestively caressed the man’s lower body as she smiled seductively.
A skull-shaped piercing on the center of her extended tongue glinted.
The man burst out laughing and pressed his lips firmly against hers.
“Well, we can think about the party later. Let’s finish our work first.”
“It’s a hassle, so let’s get it over with quickly.”
The woman said with a bored expression, jutting her chin toward the man.
“Wait here a sec. I’ll go get the prey.”
The man grinned and walked up the stairs.
“Mmph! Mmmphh!! Mmph!”
A short while later.
A young man, stripped naked and bound, was dragged down.
Unlike the handsome man, the captured youth was plain-looking.
High-prescription glasses made his already small eyes seem even smaller, and his acne-ridden skin was reminiscent of a toad.
A deep sense of disgust crept onto the woman’s face as she looked at the captive.
“He’s disgusting just to look at. Let’s just shove him in already.”
“Hold on, let me just take off his glasses.”
The handsome man removed the youth’s glasses and dragged him toward a cylindrical tank filled with water.
“Heave-ho.”
*Splash!*
“Glug! Glug-glug!”
The young man’s body plunged into the water-filled tank.
Each time he struggled in the water, the liquid sloshed and overflowed.
“Begin.”
After confirming the young man was fully submerged, the woman opened the door to a control room in the corner of the basement and stepped inside.
Standing within the control room, which was filled with massive machinery reminiscent of a boiler room, was a scrawny young man.
“…”
The young man, dressed in a white lab coat like a research scientist, stared down at the machinery with trembling eyes.
The woman frowned as she approached the frail-looking youth.
“What are you doing? I said begin.”
“J-Just a moment…”
“There’s no ‘just a moment’! Get started, you bastard!”
*Thwack!*
The woman kicked the young man violently.
“Keuk!”
*Thud!*
The youth was sent flying, crashing into the wall.
The white lab coat he was wearing slipped off slightly, revealing the clean-cut stump of his severed left arm.
“Do you need another beating to come to your senses, Yuji?”
“I-I’m sorry!”
Yuji, as he was called, trembled, his face pale with fear.
“Anyway, we don’t go easy on newbies here, so do your job properly. Got it?”
“…Yes.”
Yuji replied in a shaky voice and stood before the machinery again.
As he operated the machine with his remaining right hand, his movements came to a sudden halt.
“*Hic… sob.*”
Tears streamed down Yuji’s cheeks.
“What are you doing?”
“I-I can’t.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I can’t do it anymore! This horrible…!”
“Ha.”
*Wham!*
Yuji’s body went flying through the air once more.
“Keuk! Kack!”
“Look at this little shit, acting all high and mighty.”
The pierced woman’s lips twisted into a vicious snarl as she approached him.
She ground her foot into the stump of his severed left arm and spoke.
“I heard you lost this arm for defying Sir Sosuke, didn’t you?”
“*Hic, hiccup!*”
Yuji’s shoulders shook, his face a mask of terror.
The woman flicked her pierced tongue, her eyes glinting menacingly.
“If you don’t want your other one to end up crippled too, you’ll shut up and do as you’re told. Got it?”
“…I-I’ll keep that in mind.”
“*Tsk*. Can’t even kill him, since he was sent by Sir Sosuke himself.”
The woman spat a thick glob of saliva on the floor and turned away.
“…”
Yuji staggered to his feet and stood before the machine.
He squeezed his eyes shut as he looked at the young man on the other side of the screen.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”
Repeating apologies that would never be heard, he operated the buttons with his right hand.
And then.
*Rumble!*
Bubbles began to rise in the cylindrical tank.
The young man’s struggles intensified, and the Stigma engraved on his left chest emitted a glow.
But it was only for a moment.
His body began to slowly dissolve, as if melting into the water.
“Heehee, look how well he’s dissolving~”
The pierced woman watched the man’s body melt away with a wide smile.
The handsome man approached her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Wanna go grab a bite after this?”
“Should we?”
Their expressions were serene, as if the horrific scene unfolding before them was of no concern.
After about five minutes, the young man’s body had completely dissolved in the water.
The water, which had absorbed an entire person, now glowed with a faint blue light instead of red.
The woman gazed at the blue water in the tank and smiled darkly.
“For the reconstruction of the forsaken land.”
“For the reconstruction of the forsaken land.”
The man and woman’s laughter, along with their chilling voices, echoed through the basement.
***
“An unfamiliar ceiling.”
Staring at the ceiling made of high-quality wood, Oh-jin sat up.
He had slept on a futon on the floor for the first time in a while, but the bedding was so plush that his back didn’t ache at all.
“Ugh… my head.”
He massaged his throbbing forehead and winced.
Last night.
Memories of the drinking party, held under the guise of a welcome greeting, surfaced in his mind.
‘You probably couldn’t drink that much even if it was water.’
Sakaki’s tolerance for alcohol was as immense as his large frame.
The drinking had started in the afternoon and continued past midnight into the early morning. Even with a superhuman body, Oh-jin couldn’t escape the aftereffects.
“Well, thanks to that, we did get pretty close.”
As men often do, a single drinking session was enough to build a rapport as if they were childhood friends of twenty years.
*“Gahaha! From today, we’re family! Family! Call me Oyabun from now on!”*
Oh-jin smiled faintly, recalling Sakaki, thoroughly drunk, with his arm slung around his shoulders.
‘I don’t think I’ll have any trouble in a foreign land.’
According to Sakaki, the Kuroshi was an organization that had the Kansai region firmly in its grip.
He’d said even the government tiptoed around them, so at least within Japan, he wouldn’t have to worry about any inconveniences.
The members of the organization weren’t bad, either.
Considering the abysmal average skill level of Japanese Awakeners, the members of the Kuroshi were quite skilled.
It was likely thanks to the ‘teachings’ of Tamrangseong that Sakaki had mentioned.
“They’ll be useful.”
Oh-jin smiled darkly and lifted the covers.
“Mmm.”
“Huh?”
Only then did he notice Ha-eun lying next to him.
Ha-eun, practically half-naked, was sleeping soundly, hugging Oh-jin tightly.
“Nunna, wake up.”
“Mmmph. No…”
The strong scent of alcohol wafted from her mouth as she spoke like a pouting child.
‘Nunna was something else last night, too.’
At first, she seemed shy and stuck close to Oh-jin, but as the atmosphere heated up, she took the lead in downing drinks and went on a rampage.
*“Kyahaha!! Drink up! I said drink up, you bastards!”*
He remembered the sight of Ha-eun, holding a bottle of sake and shouting at the top of her lungs.
“She really does love her drink.”
As he looked down at Ha-eun with a wry smile.
Suddenly.
A single black mole near her left cleavage caught his eye.
“…”
What was this?
This unstoppable urge.
Watching the black mole rise and fall with her steady breaths, he was overcome with the impulse to press it gently with his fingertip.
He thought he should resist, but for some reason, his hand moved on its own.
‘Wait, on second thought, there’s no need to hold back, is there?’
They had already confirmed their feelings for each other.
For a couple, the lack of this level of skinship would be more of a problem.
“…Ahem.”
Oh-jin cleared his throat and carefully reached out his hand.
Just then.
“Hmm.”
Ha-eun shifted slightly, turning her body into a position that made it easier for Oh-jin to touch her chest.
Oh-jin’s eyes narrowed.
“Nunna.”
“Huuuhm.”
“You’re not sleeping, are you?”
“Huuuuuhm.”
He could see Ha-eun’s eyebrow twitch.
“Sigh.”
Well, of course.
There was no way she, having completed her physical reconstruction, would be suffering from a hangover like him.
“Get up, you wench.”
“Ack!”
He flicked Ha-eun lightly on the tip of her nose.
“Geez. I thought I almost had you.”
“You can’t fool me, Nunna.”
“Hmph. For someone who can’t be fooled, you looked like you were about to fall for it.”
Ha-eun laughed playfully and poked him in the side.
“Stop messing around and let’s get up.”
“Alright. Oh, but wait, before that.”
Ha-eun closed her eyes and puckered her lips.
Just as Oh-jin chuckled and leaned his face closer to her lips.
*Bang!*
“Are you awake! Let’s go get something to cure our hangovers!”
“Kyaaaah, you bastard!!”
“Keuk!”
Struck by Ha-eun’s reflexive kick, Oh-jin went spinning through the air and slammed into the wall.
“Hmm?”
Seeing the two of them, Sakaki’s lips curled into a grin.
“Gahaha! It seems I’ve unintentionally interrupted your private time!!”
“Ugh.”
Oh-jin scratched his head and pushed himself up.
“Did you sleep well, Mr. Sakaki?”
“Mr. Sakaki! Didn’t I tell you to call me Oyabun!”
“Well, that’s a bit…”
He hadn’t joined the organization, and calling him Oyabun could create unnecessary misunderstandings.
“Hmm. Is that so?”
Sakaki didn’t seem to mind much and changed the subject.
“Let’s have a nice, refreshing breakfast to cure our hangovers! Then we can discuss how to catch those Hippocampus bastards!”
Sakaki closed the door and left.
“Dammit… I’ll get that bastard back later.”
Ha-eun glared at the spot where Sakaki had been.
***
After a lavish breakfast so grand it looked like the table legs would break, Ha-eun, Oh-jin, and Sakaki gathered together.
“For now, we’re investigating the areas where the disappearances occurred… but whenever it seems like we’re about to get a lead, they vanish like ghosts, as if they knew we were coming. The investigation is at a standstill.”
Sakaki spread a map of Osaka city on the table and marked the locations where people had gone missing.
“All the missing persons are Awakeners. There are no other connections between them.”
It meant they were indiscriminately kidnapping any Awakener they could find.
“But what are these bastards doing with the Awakeners they kidnap?”
Ha-eun asked with a frown.
“We don’t know that either.”
Sakaki shook his head and continued.
“First, let’s start by finding their branch. As it happens, that fellow Koshiro recently discovered a place believed to be one of their bases.”
“Where is it?”
He already knew where the Hippocampus faction’s branches were from Cheon Do-yoon.
But he feigned ignorance and asked.
“It’s here.”
Sakaki drew a circle around a building on the outskirts of the city.
“It’s an abandoned hospital ward that collapsed after a monster attack a while ago.”
“A perfect place for shady bastards to hide.”
The place Sakaki pointed to was one of the three Hippocampus faction bases Cheon Do-yoon had told him about.
It meant the information Koshiro had brought was accurate.
“Well… we’ve gone to places like this a few times before only to come up empty-handed.”
Sakaki clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“I really hope we can catch them this time.”
“Is there a reason you’re chasing the Black Star Society?”
“Among the Awakeners they kidnapped were a few of our own family.”
A cold killing intent emanated from Sakaki’s eyes.
“I can let it slide if it’s someone else, but I can’t stand by when they dare to touch my family.”
That made sense.
Given Sakaki’s personality, he wasn’t the type to sit still when his own members were harmed.
“But besides your organization, old man, there must be other organizations or guilds with kidnapped Awakeners. Are they just doing nothing?”
Ha-eun asked, unable to understand.
“Hmph. Those guild bastards got beaten by the Black Star Society a few times and are now too scared to even think about fighting.”
“Even though their own guild members are being kidnapped?”
“That’s right.”
“What a bunch of pathetic bastards.”
Ha-eun clicked her tongue in disdain.
No matter how scary the enemy was, what kind of guild just sat back and watched as its members were being abducted?
“That’s exactly what I’ve been saying!”
Sakaki nodded his head vigorously, as if he had a lot of pent-up frustration.
“Anyway, I plan on investigating that place today. Will you come with me?”
“Of course.”
“Haha! I wish those guild bastards who cower at the mere mention of the Black Star Society would learn a thing or two from you!”
Pleased with the unhesitating answer, Sakaki clapped Oh-jin on the back and let out a hearty laugh.
‘But still.’
Oh-jin looked down at the map spread out on the table.
He checked the locations and times of the disappearances Sakaki had marked, one by one.
There were 14 cases of disappearances near the abandoned hospital ward alone.
And all of them had occurred within the last week.
‘Something’s not right.’
Oh-jin’s eyes narrowed as he examined the map.