Chapter 139
Chapter 139
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: End of Base Cleanup
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A few days had passed since Galaxy had spewed out Solitude.
The underground warehouse had been thoroughly cleaned by the slaves, transformed into the perfect playground for Son Ha-eun to toy with corpses. Moreover, after several days of Hellas's efforts to fuse the Idol of the Gods with Solitude, the idol was now covered in black slime and had become a fountain that periodically produced ectoplasm.
Thanks to that, the entrance to the underground warehouse resembled the mouth of some demonic lair. Even before entering, a dark, murky energy rippled threateningly at visitors, and just passing nearby gave off an intensely ominous vibe. It had become a place no slave—or anyone else—wanted to approach.
"Like the new workshop?"
"Yes. It's quite comfortable, and there are plenty of tools. Perfect."
I had handed over the entire science lab to Hellas.
He called in his prized apprentice, Hwang Su-min, and his new disciple, Jeong Ji-yeon, to tidy up the lab bit by bit. Before long, he had remodeled it into the lair of a mad scientist.
He even procured a massive cauldron through Ha Jin-seong—God knows where from—and placed it smack in the center of the lab. He filled it with green liquid, which Hwang Su-min stirred all day long. Apparently, it produced all sorts of potions, so I was looking forward to it.
"So... it allows long-distance communication?"
"Yes... via guild chat..."
"And as guild manager, you can access everything?"
"Yes... that's right... I act as the relay tower in the middle... so I can eavesdrop on all guild members' private chats..."
"Hm... excellent. Very excellent. Do you know the communication range?"
"Well... I've never tested it, but... it cuts off if you're too far apart. Long messages can't be input either. And if three or more people use it at once, it stops working..."
While questioning Yu Hye-ji about her Guild Manager class, I discovered a very unique feature. Guild members on her list could communicate over long distances.
This ability would be hugely helpful down the line. For instance, in places like the Missing Persons' Forest where team members might get separated, or when scouting wide areas, or even when the group splits up—it seemed perfect.
The one downside was that it stopped working if you got too far from Yu Hye-ji. Still, it functioned at a decent range, which was fortunate. If it cut off, you'd know you were too far; if it worked, you were close enough. It could even double as a comrade detector.
For that reason, I took the time to add the school's players to her guild list. With strict instructions to use it only for urgent matters, and keep it brief.
"Jin-seong. Teams formed?"
"Yes. Organized into groups of four, with balanced classes."
"Good. Send them out to scout the surroundings immediately."
The moment I heard about guild chat, I had the Awakened slaves form teams and ordered them to scour the area. They moved in basic four-man squads, hunting Field Bosses, reconning the neighborhood, looting shops and houses, and hauling supplies back to the school.
Once they piled the loot at the school entrance, the non-Awakened sorted it and stored it in warehouses or wherever needed.
For the record, all the school's menial chores fell to the non-Awakened. Laundry, cooking, and every bit of housework—they handled it all. Couldn't let useless types just eat and idle. They had to earn their keep.
"Ugh... I-I miss Mom..."
"S-Sorry... please... spare me..."
The auditorium housed idle elderly and the disabled. They received only the bare minimum food and water to stay alive. Live bodies were more useful than corpses, after all.
For those abandoned in the auditorium, their futures boiled down to two paths: sacrificing themselves for the community or turning into Alcid infectees to become the school's unpaid vigilante guards.
The elderly wouldn't make efficient Alcid infectees, so I planned to use them as offerings for our survivor camp later. Or just leave them here until something useful came up.
As for the disabled—especially those with sound bodies but troubled minds—I decided to bestow upon them a special, glorious evolutionary blessing. They had the perfect conditions for it.
Sound bodies, broken minds. Just upgrade the mind to something higher-performing. A software update, you could say. Like upgrading Windows.
"Yoon Ji-ho."
"It's Yoon Ha-jun, Master."
"Ah... right. Turn these five into your kin."
"Heh heh... Understood."
Yoon Ha-jun, the Alcid infectee, looked absolutely thrilled. Man or beast, they all feel peak ecstasy at the moment of reproduction.
In Yoon Ha-jun's case, implanting his larvae into a human body brought him near-orgasmic bliss.
Or maybe he was just happy to gain more kin. Either way, until now, his spawned Alcid larvae had all been used up as potion ingredients by Hellas. This time, different plans.
"Mooom..."
The man was thirty but had borderline intellectual disability, calling for his mom. Yoon Ha-jun approached him.
"You'll see Mom soon... don't worry, friend..."
Yoon Ha-jun removed his mask, and an Alcid larva crawled from his nostril into the disabled man's mouth.
"Urk!!! Uwaaaah!!!!"
"Sh-Shit... what the hell is that!!!"
"Uwaa!!! Monster!!"
The people in the auditorium screamed and backed away. The infected man convulsed grotesquely on the floor, then lay still.
"So that's how it changes them."
"Curious, Master? Want to try..."
"Shut your crap. I might actually kill you."
"Heh heh... sorry..."
Soon, the infected man sprang to his feet. He scanned the surroundings, then looked at his hands.
"I... am I..."
"Hey."
"Ah... y-you... ha... haha... no way..."
The formerly intellectually disabled man stared at me and laughed for a while. Then he bowed deeply in gratitude. The insect antennae wriggling from his head were utterly repulsive.
"Finally... my mind is clear. Thank you for this great blessing."
His tone implied his intelligence had risen thanks to me. What the hell?
"Hey, Yoon Ha-jun... what's this?"
"Heh heh heh... What else? He just evolved into a greater being by stepping back from humanity."
"You... no, do you all... retain memories from before?"
"Heh heh heh... I never explained our ecology in detail. We devour the host's brain and inherit some memories and emotions. Same for me. I got parts of Yoon Ha-jun's memories and feelings. For him, it seems even stronger. He identifies more with his human past than being an Alcid..."
"I see... Hey, you. What's your name?"
"My name is... Byung-ho... Byung-ho."
"Right, Byung-ho. Kneel."
Alcid infection erased the old Slave Brand. Time for a new one.
"Ah... of course... I have no intention of fighting you... I just... want to see my family..."
"You go back looking like that, they'll reject you. Better cover your face."
Byung-ho already knew my strength well. Unlike Yoon Ha-jun's initial rebellion, he knelt and pledged obedience immediately.
I branded his forehead with the Slave Brand and handed him a mask. I'd brought plenty, meant for covering faces. Alcid infectees turned as grotesque as the fly-man in The Fly.
I'm used to filth and horror, so it barely fazed me anymore. But slaves who'd seen Yoon Ha-jun's bare face went days without proper meals, so I made them cover up thoroughly.
"Now, you four come here."
I bestowed the same blessing of knowledge on the other intellectually disabled. Fused with Alcids, their intelligence rose, and the Alcids inherited memories to live their lives for them.
Honestly, from my position, if a bit of facial ugliness cured a disability... why not? This wasn't peaceful 21st-century life anymore. No strength meant death in this apocalypse. Intelligence was key to survival.
"Yoon Ha-jun. Take them to Ha Jin-seong. He'll assign work."
"Heh heh... Got it."
The former physically disabled Alcid infectees followed Yoon Ha-jun out of the auditorium. After today's tasks, they could visit the families who'd cared for them. Masks staying on, of course.
Mushroom humans will mass-produce soon anyway... wasting usable humans as mere offerings would be a shame.
Humans were a resource with endless uses.
"And you lot... agree to be test subjects, and you can leave this place."
This time, I gathered wheelchair users, the mobility-impaired, amputees—non-Awakened with no class and physical disabilities.
"T-Test subjects? What does that..."
Their minds were intact. Just inconvenient bodies. Normally, no reason to feed and house them, but yesterday changed that. Hellas's proposal—too useful to pass up, even if it dehumanized them.
"One experiment is planned. Replacing your broken bodies... with something new."
The disabled murmured among themselves. A woman in a wheelchair spoke up.
"Replace this body... with something new?"
"Yes. But it's still in the planning stage. No guarantee of success. It'll hurt like hell. You might die midway."
"Uh..."
Still planning because no test subjects yet. I was giving young, relatively fit ones a shot. Elderly had higher death risk during, so sidelined for now.
"They say personal willpower is crucial. That's why I'm asking your consent instead of ordering you. This is your one shot to escape those wretched shells. How about gaining new flesh and joining the great evolution?"
The great evolution... aka the encephalization project.
Still vague and abstract, but after Hellas and Jeong Ji-yeon's ten-hour talk, they pegged 70% odds of replacing human bodies with machines.
More like shoving brains into automatons, but close enough. Hellas had top-tier knowledge in body modification too, so worth a shot once subjects were ready.
Assuming Jeong Ji-yeon's class evolved successfully from Engineer to Magic Engineer, that is.
"I... I want to."
"M-Me too... I hate just sitting here... I want... to help..."
Hands went up one by one. Some still hesitated—they'd miss this rare chance.
I left the idiots who didn't react in the auditorium and took the four volunteers straight to the alchemy workshop in the science lab.
"Them?"
"Yeah. They want to give it a shot."
"I see... impressive. I can sense the resolve in their eyes..."
Hellas greeted the four volunteers with a nod. I watched, then asked him,
"By the way, Hellas... weren't you a Rank 2 Alchemist when I bought you? Not even Rank 1, but Rank 2... and way too useful, no?"
"Ah... there's a heartbreaking story behind that..."
Hellas gave a brief rundown of his past.
TL;DR: He joined a famous alchemy guild, became an elf alchemist's assistant. The elf, seeing his talent, kept him as an underpaid helper for 50 years, blocking promotion to Rank 1 until death. Hellas still didn't know elixir recipes—that nearly brought tears to my eyes.
Even in a fantasy world... grad students have it rough...
Hellas was a grad student who'd rotted for nearly 50 years without graduating. And his advisor was a high elf, leading him to slavery in the apocalypse...
No wonder he went off the rails... not like he wrecked his homeland for nothing...
Explained his heretical, perverse knowledge despite being an alchemist. Probably plotted to kill the prof.
"Anyway, make it good. Success means big gains for you too."
"Of course... a chance to escape short-lived fate. Theory's solid. I just lacked time, resources, and assistants like these back then..."
Hellas smiled at witch Hwang Su-min stirring the cauldron and Jeong Ji-yeon tinkering away.
"Alright, I'm off. Good luck, everyone."
"Yes! Take care!"
I left the science lab.
That wrapped up loose ends. Now, time to hunt Field Bosses in the city center and level up properly.
Once leveled enough, buy gear from black market and peddler NPCs, then take on the underworld kings from the Ghost Gate.
They said they held the key to ending this DLC...
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